


The Melody Of Our Hearts

by SleepySheep80



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Again why isn't that a tag?, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baker Coran, Baker Hunk, Bilingual Hunk, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Boy Next Door AU, Can't believe I forgot slow burn, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Dancer Allura, Dancer Lance (Voltron), Falling In Love, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Hunk (Voltron) Has Two Moms, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hunk has issues, I'm so happy thats a tag, Idiots in Love, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, M/M, Meet the Family, Music, Oh my god there's already so many tags and I've only scratched the surface, Pining Hunk (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Queer Hunk, Romantic Fluff, Samoan Hunk (Voltron), Slow Burn, They all have hobbies, They love Music, Yeah that's right bet you weren't expecting that, lance has daddy issues, ok i'll stop now, so much fluff ojc, technically, they're so cute my god, why is that not a tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-02-22 16:55:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 30,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13171203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepySheep80/pseuds/SleepySheep80
Summary: Hunk never thought that someone could possibly love him; his too big body, his awkward speech, his shyness, were all completely unlovable. But when he gets new neighbors and one of them includes the hot Hispanic boy with brilliant blue eyes, he wonders if they could help fix each other's problems. And maybe he could even love all the things that Hunk hates about himself.





	1. Cake Anybody?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I hope you can all enjoy this fic. I decided that there needs to be more Hance fic out there where the focus isn't smut so here we are. I had a lot of fun this first chapter, especially with symbolism and inconspicuous character traits. It's a little boring but exciting first chapter are hard okay? Well please enjoy.

Hunk expected to come home from school feeling tired and jaded. His monotonous mood changed the minute he saw the large "U-Haul" trailer in the driveway of the house that sat next to his own. It was a humble, pale yellow house. The lovely Mrs. Gates had lived there before she moved into a retirement home, leaving nothing behind except for her beloved bed of white daffodils and a "FOR SALE" sign staked into her lawn. Hunk knew someone new would move in some time or another, but he hadn't imagined it would be this quick. Mrs. Gates had only moved out a few days ago, perhaps she had someone interested prior to selling it. 

Hunk let his eyes linger on the house a few more seconds before stepping into his own home. He was so distracted by the thoughts of new neighbors he didn't notice the barrel of energy coming around the corner. A warm lithe body crashed into his own sturdy one and he stumbled to catch and steady the person. He quickly identified the person as his mom, who wasted no time in giving him a big wet kiss on the cheek. "Hunk, you have to come look at this!" she proclaimed excitedly, grabbing a hold of her son's wrist and dragging him down the hall. 

Hunks mom, Abby, was a spirited lady. She had long brown hair that was almost always up out of the way. She was never still, always had her hands doing something, usually painting. Hunk's mom created beautiful art in her studio – read repurposed office- and sold it for money. She never did it for the money though, she did it because she loved to create with her hands. So Hunk was hardly surprised when in her studio, that he was dragged into, there stood a painting. It depicted a colorful night sky dappled with shiny stars that streaked through the dark paint; a moon shone brilliantly in the galaxy of colors. His mom went to stand next to it, chin lifted in pride. Hunk awed at it for a bit longer, taking in every detail. She had many paintings of stars, each just as breathtaking as the last. When Hunk had asked why she loved to paint them so much she had explained that when she traveled she saw many things, but the most beautiful was the sky on a clear night in the middle of the ocean. She'd adamantly tell him how the skies were filled with so many stars that shone so brightly that if you stared for too long, you'd begin to feel like you were floating in outer space right next to them. "It's beautiful Mom." he praised.

"Mmhhm," she nodded, "come here and take a picture of it with me before I put it up for sale." Hunk waddled over to his mom, careful to not step on anything strewn across the floor. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and the duo smiled brightly while Hunk took a photo of both them and the artwork.

"How much do you think it will sell for?" he asked after handing the camera back to his mom. She made a thoughtful sound before answering,

"At least $250, and that's worst-case scenario." It was then that a door could be heard opening and light footsteps entering the house.  
"That must be Em," Abby offered. The two of them left the studio in order to go greet the women entering the house. Abby strolled up to her before planting a chaste kiss on her lips, "Welcome home Emere."

Emere was Hunk's other mom; however, he called her tinā, the Samoan word for mom, as to avoid confusion. She was Hunk's birth mother; she had a dark complexion, black hair, and a round face. She worked as a teacher at an elementary school. Hunk always thought no job suited the kind, patient, woman more.  
Hunk followed suit of his mom and bent down to plant a gentle kiss on his tinā's cheek. That made her smile but she shooed the two off so that she could put away her bags. 

Later that night at the dinner table Hunk brought up the new neighbors, "Did you two notice the moving van at Mrs. Gates?"

"Yeah, someone new must be moving in," Abby stated.

"I wonder what they're like?" Emere added.

"Hopefully they're nice." Hunk continued thoughtfully.

Emere nodded, "I'm sure they will be sweetie."

"Yeah! And if they aren't I'll fight them with my paintbrush!" Emere huffed at her rambunctious wife before finishing up her supper. 

The three of them began to wash the dishes and clean up the table. Emere always made sure that there were never any leftovers. Hunk and Abby did not have the courage to face her wrath had they left a crumb on their plate. Hunk had been wiping the table when a chime rang through the house. Hunk hadn't heard their doorbell in so long he had almost forgotten what it sounded like. "Coming!" Hunk shouted running towards the door. When he opened it he saw three people; they were all Hispanic, quite tall and lengthy. Hunk immediately got the impression they were siblings. The oldest was a girl who appeared to be about 18, there was a slightly shorter boy who looked about Hunk's age, and a small boy who Hunk guessed was 13. 

"Hello," the girl greeted, "I'm Nicole, and these are my brothers: Lance and Matias." She gestured to the older and younger boys respectively.

"Hi, my names Hunk," he replied.

"We just moved into the house next door," Lance elaborated.

"And we umm…brought cake?" Nicole added, gingerly holding up a white bag that Hunk failed to notice earlier.

Emere appeared from behind Hunk, "Oh, would you three like to come inside for some tea while we serve the cake?" Her disarming smile seemed to do the trick as the trio immediately lost all previous stiffness.

"Oh, uh, if you're sure. Thank you for your hospitality." Nicole replied, stepping through the doorway. Her brothers followed up her "Thank you for your hospitality" with their own thanks before also stepping inside. 

Emere disappeared back into the kitchen to make tea while Hunk led them to a small dining table. An excited Abby came out of the kitchen to join them at the table.  
"My name's Abby, that was Emere earlier. It's nice to meet you," she greeted. 

"Likewise," Nicole replied. She set the bag of cake on the table and took a seat, her brothers quickly following. 

"So how old are all of you if you don't mind me asking?" Hunk inquired.

"My names Nicole," She restated for the sake of Abby, "I'm 19. I work at an insurance company."

"I'm Lance, 17. This is Matias," he gestured to the younger boy, "he's 12."

Hunk hadn't noticed earlier, but Lance had an accent. His older sister's accent was almost indistinguishable but his you could hear. It sounded like he grew up speaking another language but had experience with English.

"Oh, I'm 17 too," Hunk added. Lance smiled at Hunk kindly and he returned it. Hunk let his attention wander to the quiet boy at Lance's side. He was starting to look rather uncomfortable with, presumably, the social situation. Hunk could relate and he found himself sympathizing with the shy boy.

Emere appeared from the kitchen with a platter of cups and a teapot. She gently set them on the table and began to serve the tea, "You guys don't live in that house all by yourselves do you?" she asked, concerned that the kids may be without parents.

"Oh hardly," Lance laughed, "there is also our parents and our other siblings. We decided to divide and conquer." Abby giggled at his wording where Emere sighed in relief before sitting down with the rest of them. Everyone now had a cup of tea that they could periodically sip. Emere and Abby sat unnaturally close to each other and had Hunk not grown up with them he may have wondered if their guests noticed or not. 

"So there's a lot of people in your family?" Abby asked.

"Yeah, 7 of us," Nicole answered.

"Oh my, all in that small house?!" Emere added.

"Yeah, but its fine. We're used to sharing." Lance showed another smile. There was a slight lull in the conversation but Emere quickly fixed that,  
"Well, why don't I cut up that cake you kids brought,"she swiftly took the cake into the kitchen to be served.

"Thank you," everyone at the table chorused. Young Matias pulled on Lance's sleeve to get his attention. Lance bent down so that his brother could whisper in his ear.

"You should at least try on your own," Lance replied quietly. Matias pouted and seemed to grumble before giving in to the request. He very quietly mumbled,

"Can I use you're umm…uh," he turned to send a pleading look at his brother.

"Restroom," Lance offered.

"Restroom please?" Matias had a very heavy accent and Hunk had a hard time understanding the simple sentence. Abby seemed to have a similar issue for she paused for a second before lighting up in understanding. She smiled encouragingly to Matias before saying, 

"Sure, it's just down that hallway. The door at the very end." 

Matias nodded before heading down the hall.

"Thank you," Nicole said, "his English isn't great and he isn't very confident so he needs all the practice he can get."

"It's no big deal. Glad I could help teach him if only a little."

Emere came back in with the cake and conversation died down a little while everyone was eating. Luckily Matias came back in time to get his own piece of cake as well.  
"You guys are much nicer than those other people," Lance started, "the Nelsons I think they were called." Hunk, Abby, and Emere all groaned. They knew the Nelsons, they were very unfriendly. Their household consisted of Mrs. Nelson and Mr. Nelson who were both in their mid 50's. 

"Oh man, that must have been a nightmare," Hunk joked.

"Yeah, when we offered them some cake they yelled at us to get off their porch," Lance continued.

"They threatened to call the cops on us," Nicole added.

"Yeah, they're pretty awful. I'm pretty sure they don't even know my name, they normally just call me " That big boy from next door" Hunk complained.

"I've been meaning to ask, is Hunk your actual name?" Lance inquired.

"Oh, no. My name is Puleleiite, it's Samoan, but it's kind of a mouthful so everyone just calls me Hunk."

"Oh yeah that makes sense, cause you're a Hunk," Lance earned an elbow in the side from his sister. Meanwhile, Hunk was trying his best not to blush at the compliment.

The six of them talked for about an hour before a ping came from Nicole's phone: a text from their mom telling them it was time to come home. So the Garrets said goodbye to the three friendly neighbors. Just as Lance was leaving he suddenly changed his mind and ran back to Hunk, "Hey, do you want to exchange numbers?" 

"Oh! Uh, yeah, sure."

"Ok cool, where can I write my number?"

Emere reached over to a counter and pulled out two sticky notes and a pen. Each boy quickly wrote out their cell and home phone numbers for the other.

"Okay, see you later Hunk," Lance left with a smile and a wink that left Hunk with a slight blush. His moms gave him a sly look.

"What!?" he exclaimed, turning to face them.

"We didn't say anything," his mom appealed. Hunk furrowed his brows at them.

"They were nice," his tinā added.

"Yeah, they were."


	2. Matias' Pants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk and Lance are window buddies just like the cheesy movies and Hunk meets the rest of the Mcclain family.

Hunk was innocently getting dressed for school, but today did not start the same as all the days before it. With his shirt half on he froze, catching movement out of the corner of his eye. Once he turned to get a better look he saw him. Across from his window stood a waving Lance, behind his own window. Hunk blushed when he noticed his shirtless state and the cute boy who could very easily see his chest. 

He quickly finished putting on his shirt and made his way to his window to open it. Lance did the same to his own so that the two boys could now hear each other. Hunk was slightly taken back when he could hear loud talking, crashing, running and all sorts of noises from Lances side. “Good morning Hunk!” the blue-eyed boy greeted him.  
“Is everything-“ Hunk was interrupted by a particularly loud crash, “okay over there?” Hunk could hear the worry laced in his voice. What was happening that cause that much noise?

“Hmmm? Oh, you mean the noise!? It’s always like this in the morning,” Lance laughed lightly, finding the whole thing amusing.

“We’re window buddies.” Hunk stated, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Yeah! Isn’t that cool?! It’s just like the cheesy movies! You must be getting ready for school yeah?!” Lance yelled across the gap, struggling to keep his voice above the chaos happening in his house.

“Oh, uh yeah. Hey, where do you go to s-“ Hunk was cut off by Matias slamming the door of the bedroom open and charging through. Lance sharply swung around to address his brother, who Hunk noticed wasn’t wearing any pants.

“LANCE I CAN’T FIND MY PANTS HAVE YOU SEEN THEM!?!” He screamed, also trying to be heard over the constant noise. Lance pointed to one of the two beds in the room. On it lay bunch of clothes, Hunk could only assume one of the articles were Matias' pants,

“They’re right there,” He pointed out. Matais said something in Spanish before grabbing his pants and sprinting out of the room. Lance turned back around to face Hunk,  
“Sorry I should probably go, have fun at school!” and with that, he closed the window and left.

Hunk laughed at the situation he just witnessed before leaving his room for breakfast. Once he got into the kitchen he sought out both his moms. His mom was in the kitchen dishing up scrambled eggs and toast so he kissed her on the cheek as he moved past her to the table. There his tinā sat, scrambling to get a stack of papers into her bag. He went over to her so he could also kiss her on the cheek and say good morning.

“Good morning sweetie,” she greeted pleasantly. It wasn’t long before the three Garrets were sat at the table with their breakfast. 

“Hey Hunk,” his mom started, “you should bring food for the neighbors today.”

“What!? Why?!” He sputtered out, not liking the sound of having to go meet new people and be social.

“They brought stuff for us. Plus they’d probably appreciate it considering all the people who live there,” his tinā added. Hunk sent her a pleading look. Both his parents knew about his feelings about being put in social situations. He always tended to get anxiety over meeting new people, constantly scared of being judged. No matter how hard he tried to crush the fear it always seemed to resurface. His mom gave him a knowing look,

“This is a good way to challenge yourself, baby. We know it’s scary but the more you try and put yourself out there the less scary it will be.” 

Hunk groaned, “Okay…okay, I’ll try. I’ll bring them some cookies or something after supper tonight.”

Both his moms smiled at him proudly, “Thank you, sweetie. We appreciate you trying so hard for us.” The grateful look his moms sent him almost made all the dread in his stomach dissipate, almost. 

He spent that day of school thinking about what kind of cookies Lance might like.

Once he stepped back into his home he got right to it, marching into the kitchen and pulling out ingredients from the cupboards. He was already intensely absorbed in his task: snickerdoodles. At some point, his mom had ducked her head into the kitchen to say welcome home and his tinā had come home from work but he hardly noticed, he was far too busy with the cinnamon. His parents always said that he was a like a god in the kitchen, an insane, hyper-focused, god. He tended to forget his surroundings when cooking, some called it a curse, he called it a blessing. It always provided a convenient and delicious serenity he couldn’t get anywhere else. He always made sure the kitchen was stocked lest he be in the mood to cook but not have the ingredients. 

About an hour later he stepped out of the kitchen with a warm pale of soft snickerdoodle cookies. His moms who had been cuddling on the couch stood up to taste test. Both parents put a hand in the bin to take a treat. They took a bite, humming in satisfaction.

“Sooooo goooood,” his mom expressed.

“Mmmm. Everything you make is always so delicious Hunk, “ his tinā complimented.

Hunk blushed and said a meek thank you. Hunk put the cookies back on the counter after taking one himself, he had to be absolutely sure they tasted ok after all. His tinā joined him in the kitchen so that she could make supper for the evening. The two of them fluidly worked, creating a yummy dish. Cooking was always a way Hunk and his tinā bonded. They both enjoyed it and they always found themselves helping to teach each other. 

After supper Hunk knew it was time to deliver his cookies. He and his moms stood in the doorway. His mom gave him a quick kiss on the forehead,

“For courage,” she explained. His tinā wished him luck before he walked out the door. 

He left his cozy house and made the short walk to the newly occupied house. He crept up onto the front porch, wary of any loud noises like there were that morning. All he heard was silence though so he assumed he was safe. He took a deep breath, straightened his back, and knocked on the door. It only took a few moments before the door swung open, but Hunk didn’t see anyone across from him. That was until a force crashed into his legs, nearly taking him out and sending him down the steps. He looked down to see a little girl hugging his legs. She looked up at him and she had the biggest smile on her face. Hunk was immediately captivated by the girl, she had short hair and wore T-shirt and jeans. He was in awe, but then she started screaming in rapid-fire Spanish and jumping up and down. She grabbed onto his shirt and pants, bouncing around excitedly. Hunk was starting to feel incredibly uncomfortable but luckily a presence came from the house to rescue him. Nicole quickly took in the situation before prying the girl off Hunk. She quickly scolded the girl in Spanish, a language Hunk was growing familiar with today and settled her on her hip.

“Sorry about that Hunk,” she said bashfully.

“Oh, hey Nicole. I just came over to deliver some cookies: a welcome to the neighborhood gift,” he held up the pale of cookies for her to see. Her eyes widened in surprise, but her features quickly softened into a grateful smile, 

“Come in, you can meet everyone,” she motioned for him to follow her inside, “this is Sofia, she’s five. She doesn’t speak any English though so you won’t really be able to talk to her.” Nicole swiftly deposited the toddler on the living room floor before beckoning him into the kitchen to put the cookies away. Inside the kitchen there stood a stout woman who had her hands in the sink, washing dishes.

“Hey mom, this is Hunk. I told you about him and his moms yesterday.” Nicole introduced him.

“Oh! Hello dear,” she wiped her wet hands on her apron before offering him a handshake, “ I’m Michelle Mcclain. It’s nice to meet you,” He shook her hand. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Mcclain.” 

“Oh my, what a polite young man!”

“Ha ha, thank you, ma’am.”

His unfamiliar voice must have caught the attention of another family member as a teen girl poked her head into the kitchen to look at Hunk.

“Who’s this?” she asked.

“This is Hunk Garret, he’s the son of the neighbors on the right. He’s Lance’s age. Hunk this is Camilia, she's 18,” Nicole introduced them. Camilia looked a lot like her older sister but she had a much more feminine look than her. Her hair was done in a complicated plait; she wore makeup and had a flowy pink shirt on. 

“Nice to meet you Hunk,” she grinned kindly at him. It was then that loud footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. Hunk saw Matias and another young boy running down the stairs with what looked like a phone and a pair of earbuds in each of their arms. As they leaped off the staircase Hunk heard a loud voice roar angry Spanish from atop the stairs before he heard more footsteps stomp down the stairs. Matias and the other boy quickly dove behind the couch, right before Lance appeared from the stairwell. Lance quickly surveyed the room, looking for the boys, but he found something much more unexpected,

“Hunk?” he said, confused why the Samoan was in his house unexpectedly. That confusion quickly turned into happiness at seeing the kind boy he met yesterday and spoke to this morning.

“Hi, I came with cookies," he greeted.

“Cookies?” The two boys chorused, popping their heads up from behind the couch. 

“Hey! Give me my stuff back,” Lance quickly returned to his previous task. The boys tried their best to escape him but they didn’t last long before Lance had each one under an arm, 

“Hunk this is Lucas, he’s my other brother. He’s nine.” 

Lucas greeted him with a quiet “Hi.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, Lucas,” Hunk encouraged, figuring he probably had a harder time than Matias did with English since he was younger. Lucas didn’t reply, Hunk honestly wasn’t even sure if he understood what he said. 

Lance quickly took his items back from his brothers before setting them back on the ground, not unkindly. Sofia who had been trying to stay out of her brothers way during their tussle ran to Lances side and said something to him. Lance swiftly picked her up and put her on his hip, replying to her using that language Hunk was sure he’d be hearing a lot of. 

Lance walked over towards where Hunk, his sisters, and his mom were standing, “It’s nice to see you again. Sorry for my sudden disappearance this morning,” he apologized.  
“Oh no, it wasn’t a problem. You looked like you were pretty busy.”

“Yeah, mornings can be a little hectic around here.”

“A little?” Nicole added, “it’s always utter chaos. I swear it becomes a gladiator ring in this house every morning.”

The three siblings giggled at that. “So are these the cookies?” Lance asked, playing with the pale he had set on the counter.

“Yeah, their snickerdoodles. None of you guys have any allergies do you?” 

“Lucas is allergic to peanuts. Snickerdoodles don’t have peanuts do they?” Camilia added. Hunk wondered where the two boys from earlier went to but a quick look around confirmed that they were in the living room. No doubt they were listening in on the conversation. 

“No, they don’t. He should be fine,” Hunk assured them. 

“Well, there’s no point in just looking at them,” Mrs. Mcclain commented. Lance took the lid off and started divvying out a cookie to everyone now that he had his mothers permission. Hunk watched for their reactions. He knew he was good at anything involving a kitchen so he hoped to win them over with food before he could manage to do something embarrassing. As they each took a bite he hears a few ‘Oh my gods’ and a ‘wow’. He heard Matias and Lucas share a conversation in Spanish. From the tone, he could guess that they enjoyed his dessert.

“Did you make these?” Nicole asked.

“Yeah, I’m really into baking.”

“Wow, these are really good Hunk,” Mrs. Mcclain complimented. 

“Yeah man, you have got to teach me how to bake like this,” Lance complimented.

“Oh sure,” Hunk replied.

“Really?!” 

“Yeah, I don’t see a reason why not?” Hunk stated questionably, confused as to why it was so surprising.

“I figured you’d want to keep all your secrets to yourself. You know; a magician never reveals his secrets or whatever,” Lance answered his question.

“Anyone with a recipe can bake,” Hunk replied.

They continued on talking about baking. Hunk enjoyed the topic so much and Lance conversed with so much energy that he hadn’t even noticed when Sofia was put down so she could run off, or when his sisters and mom left to give them some privacy. 

They talked for at least an hour and a half before Hunk remembered,

“Oh yeah! I was going to ask you what school you go to this morning?” 

“Oh, actually me and my siblings are homeschooled. We do all our courses online,” Lance replied.

“Really? Do you like it that way?” 

“It has its pluses and minuses. I don’t meet people my age very often but the schedule isn’t as strict. I just work when I feel like it you know?”  
Hunk nodded in understanding. He’d had a few online courses he had to take so he had a small understanding. 

Lance and Hunk talked for a while more, mostly about school as they had the same curriculum. Eventually, though Hunk noticed the time on the stove and knew he had to leave the Mcclains.

“Don’t forget your promise to teach me to bake kay?” Lance cheered as the two boys walked to the door. 

“Yeah, of course. I’d never forget. I’ll see you tomorrow?” Hunk replied.

“Yup, bye Hunk. Come again sometime.”

And with that Hunk left the lovely Mcclain household. He began walking back to his own house. Hunk had never had siblings, never really desired them really, but Lance and his family seemed so close. You could tell they looked out for each other. 

He opened up the door and walked into the house, happy to be back in a familiar space. His parents were immediately in his face, asking how the trip went.

“It was nice. They were nice. Maybe a little overwhelming, but what can you expect from a family of seven,” He told them. From there the questions just kept coming. So Hunk sat him moms down on the couch and retold the whole visit for them. They were thrilled at the idea of a new mom friend as well as a friend for Hunk, not that he didn’t have any friends. 

Hunk was feeling completely tired out from his trip, social situations always did that to him, so he left his moms to themselves and went to bed. He fell asleep with thoughts of the friendly family from next door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Years! I hope you all enjoyed this. I'm still looking for another beta reader so if you are interested let me know. On a side note, I was very disappointed to learn there is no such thing as cookie symbolism. Thanks for reading.


	3. The Gang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s time to meet the rest of the gang. Also, time to get started on the music theme of this whole fic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't actually read this, ill do it tomorrow so hopefully, it all makes sense.  
> EDIT: A week later and I finally stop procrastinating and actually read over this.

"I’ll stay here, the provider of that constant sting they call love."  
\-----------------------------------------------------

 

The wonderful peace that had been wrapping its arms around Hunk came to an abrupt stop with the sound of a blaring, annoying sound: his alarm clock. So Hunk groaned in frustration and let the awful sound wash over him for a few more seconds because shutting the alarm off. Everyone can agree that school days are the worst. 

He got up and opened his curtain. Letting some natural light into the room always tended to ebb the pain of waking up a tad for Hunk. Of course, he had momentarily forgotten about his new neighbor and as such almost fell back when he was greeted with a shirtless Lance, who had his back to the window. Hunk didn't realize he was ogling and his cheeks had turned a slightly pinkish color.

Lance had picked up a shirt off the ground and was stretching it over his shoulders. He absentmindedly turned around. "Oh! Hunk, good morning!" 

"Oh-h Lance! Good morning, " He returned, embarrassed by being caught staring. Luckily it didn't seem Lance noticed, or if he did he didn't care. Hunk let his eyes rest upon his neighbor who was adjusting his shirt to sit properly on his shoulders. 

"You off to school?" Lance leaned both his arms onto his window cell. He leaned out the opening precariously and it put Hunk slightly on edge; he didn't want Lance to fall out.

"Yeah, what about you? I don't know anyone who willingly gets up at this time," He gave a nervous chuckle. He didn't want to offend Lance by assuming he wasn't an early riser. Of course, he probably did anyhow and now Lance wasn't going to talk to him anymore and he’d have to awkwardly avoid his new neighbor because only he could mess up a relationship this early on an-

"Yeah, it's my turn to make breakfast. Trust me I’d be dead to the world right now if I could," he let out a bellowing laugh which Hunk caught and soon he was laughing right along with Lance. It wasn't even that funny but Lances joyous laugh was more than contagious.

Their laughing fit was interrupted when a murmured sentence of Spanish was angrily directed at Lance. Hunk looked past Lance to see a small head of brown hair peeking out from underneath a blanket on the second bed. Hunk had forgotten Lance shared his room with Matias. Hunk guiltily cast his eyes down, knowing he woke up Lance's little brother with his laughter. 

"Haha, sorry Matty, " Lance went over to the boy and gently pet his hair in way of an apology. Lance had a look of love on his face and Hunk was filled with a strange feeling he couldn't put a name too. Hunk took a peek at his clock only to see 10 minutes had passed already. 

"I'm really sorry Lance but I have to go so I can get ready for school."

"Oh, sorry for keeping you then. Have a good day." Lance waved his new friend goodbye, swiftly turning on his heel to go make his family some breakfast.

Hunk watched him go with a smile on his face that he wasn't even aware of. Somehow all those ugly feelings of dread had been washed away by Lance. If he felt this good every time he talked to Lance he was going to have to invest in talking to Lance every morning.

 

Hunk was sitting in his bio class. He was currently on the task of doodling little spirals and squares in his margins instead of solving the textbook questions like he was supposed to. Hunk is a good student he swears it’s just that bio isn't really his thing. 

He was just about done his next square when the bell sounded through the school. The sound was followed by kids packing up books and zipping up binders. Students fled out the door, excited for lunch. Hunk tactfully joined the cacophony of bustling kids. He dodged and swerved through the kids standing in the unpractically narrow hallways. His size gave him an advantage but he still didn't want some poor middle school kid to get knocked over by him. 

His school was pretty big so there was a middle school end as well as a high school end. The two sides rarely mingled, that is outside of the hallways at the lockers. 

It took Hunk a solid 10 minutes before he managed to get to his locker, grab his lunch, make his way to the cafeteria, and then to his table of friends. He saw all of them except for two who must have still been on their way. 

He sat next to a small girl who had her laptop out: Pidge. Despite being two years younger and a whole grade below him he knew Pidge since they were kids. Their parents were friends from college and thus Pidge and Hunk had no choice but to get along, not that getting along was much of an issue. They had always bonded over their love of tinkering with things.

Hunk leaned over to see her computer screen, "Whatcha working on?"

"Coding for my powerpoint presentation," she explained, never taking her eyes off the screen of digital code and fingers never slowing their typing on the keys.

"Your power point has coding?" added a new voice from across the table.

Allura, she's a senior who had moved here from England with her uncle. She was the prettiest girl Hunk had ever met, also the smartest. She had plans to become a nurse, and she had the grades for it too. He never understood what a girl like her was doing in their little mismatch group.

"Oh, yeah. It's going to blow Mr. Tiffin's mind!" Pidge replied. She had a frightening look in her eyes behind her glasses. She always got that look when she was planning something, knowing her probably something dangerous.

"What's going to blow Mr. Tiffin's mind?" came another new voice from behind Allura. Hunk looked up to see the last two members of their little group finally arrive, Shiro and his little brother Keith. Shiro was a senior while Keith was a junior like Hunk. Shiro leaned down to peck Allura (his girlfriend)s cheek. Behind him, Keith made a disturbed face before sitting down next to Pidge, who was wearing an eerily similar expression. Shiro and Keith were in the taekwondo club. In fact, Shiro was the captain and founder. The club was pretty small but they still went to the odd competition. Keith was their strongest member (besides Shiro) and he was considered the co-founder. You haven’t seen anything like Shiro and Keith's taekwondo. Hunk had no idea a sport could look so dangerous and graceful at the same time.

"My power point presentation," Pidge answered Shiro's question. She hunched farther into her beloved laptop, struggling with a piece of code.

"Did you eat lunch Pidge," Hunk asked, concerned his small friend might not be eating. Forgetting to eat, or even just refusing to in exchange for more computer time, was a bad habit of hers. Luckily she always had her cheerful friend to remind her.

"Hmm, no, " she replied, already knowing where this conversation was going. She scuffed her foot across the ground, looking down at her lap.

"Please," Hunk simply asked. Maybe if he had made a big deal of it Pidge could have refused but when faced with such an earnest plea to take care of herself, and coming from her best friend, she couldn’t refuse. She reached down underneath her to pull out her lunch kit from her seat. Hunk wasn’t satisfied until he saw her take a bite out of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"Thank you," Hunk replied in appreciation and it warmed Pidges heart to know her friend cared so much about her.

Hunk smiled at her and took to his own lunch, specially made by his tinā. He was engrossed in the amazing food until he heard a whine from his left. He turned to see Keith staring at his food in envy.

"You are so lucky," he further elaborated. Hunk was scared Keith was going to start drooling if he looked any longer. He gave Keith a devious smile,

"I know right. I love my tinā so much. I could easily convince her to make something for you Keith if you wanted."

"Noooo I would never take advantage of your mom like that. Her food is only for the special occasions where I come to your house," he shook his head despairingly, "if I let myself eat her cooking all the time it wouldn’t be a treat anymore."

Hunk laughed at the pouty face Keith was making. He had met Keith one day when Keith asked him for help with their English homework. When Hunk had introduced himself Keith had laughed and made a joke about his name because he thought he was joking when he said his name was Hunk. After Hunk explained his whole name situation Keith almost self-combusted because he felt like such an asshole. Hunk had assured him it was okay after Keith apologized but to this day Keith still feels mortified. Keith started hanging out with Pidge and him because "I still feel so bad," and with him came Shiro.

When Hunk first met Shiro he actually had no idea he was related to Keith. He first met him in French, which was a combined class of 10s, 11s, and 12s. It was the first day of French Hunk had ever taken and he ended up sitting in the back next to Shiro. All was well until Shiro started making jokes and witty comments under his breath every 3 minutes. Hunk was trying so hard not to laugh that by the end of class his face had gone cherry red. As they were leaving the classroom Hunk confronted Shiro about it, who was beyond embarrassed that those jokes to himself were heard by someone else. Of course, Shiro then brought Allura.

At first he didn't really like Allura. Hunk never tried to judge people but he couldn’t help but feel jealous about her-…well…everything. That all changed when she punched a guy in the face and gave him a broken nose for calling Hunk fat. After that Hunk had no problem calling her a friend.  
The group of friends all clicked and within a year they were a well-known pack. You would never have guessed but their personalities all complimented each other, making up for what another lacked. Hunk had made sure to ask everyone about their weekend before the bell for class went. Back to the hell that is school he supposes. 

 

Hunk shucked off his backpack at the front door. He prepared himself for a sudden attack from his mom but when he saw that the coast was clear he made no hesitation to slip into the kitchen for a snack. There was still leftover snickerdoodles so that’s what he hauled into his bedroom. Once he settled down he couldn’t help but peek out his window in search of his Hispanic friend. He was disappointed to not see the cheerful boy on the other side but he quickly shook the sudden disheartened feeling, determined to get something done today. He had a lot to do of course. Why is it that teachers always seem to give their homework on the same day? Hunk swore they confided in the staff room about which days they were going to swamp their students with homework. Hunk took a quick break to let his mind refresh from a day’s work at school before getting started on his homework. A couple hours later he had just put it down when he was called downstairs for supper.

Supper was made by his mom today. She made spaghetti, which Hunk had always loved with ketchup despite his mom’s utter disgust at this. She'd always complain how it was just wrong. Hunk would always reply that ketchup was basically just tomato sauce anyways. They always teased each other on the subject.

When Hunk had finished cleaning up supper he sprinted up the steps to his room. This time when he glanced out his window, unlike earlier, he saw Lance. He was sitting hunched over his desk writing on a piece of paper. His window was closed and Hunk considered leaving Lance alone but he looked like he was in pain. He was holding his head in his hand, pencil still, glaring at the paper, the classic example of a student who would rather be anywhere else. So Hunk opened his window and threw a broken paper clip at Lances. He seemed to startle before looking over at Hunk. His pained expression turned into surprise, then excitement. He opened his window and beamed at Hunk,

"Hey."

"Hi, what were you doing? You looked like you were contemplating how long it'd take to die of boredom," Hunk asked, supporting his head with a hand on his chin and an elbow on the window cell. Lance let out a loud laugh that Hunk was beginning to learn was just how Lance always laughed.

"Just chem homework," then he mumbled to himself, "but is it homework if all my work is done at home?" Hunk chuckled a little bit at that. Not really knowing if Lance meant to let his thoughts out like that or not.

"Do you want help?" Hunk offered, his chemistry mark was one of his highest, only second to math and physics.

"Nah that okay, I just need a break," Hunk caught the hint that Lance had sent him: Lance wanted to talk with him. That fact made Hunk smile a little, feeling all warm inside. It was always nice when people wanted to spend time with you, no matter how selfish that sounds.

"Well allow me to offer my assistance," he replied, taking on a mock formal tone. Lance must have found it funny because he laughed and went along with it,

"Very well my dear sir, I put my faith in your ability to cure boredom."

The two boys laughed and with that, the conversation was kicked off. For well over an hour the boys asked each other questions and passionately talked about their interests. For example, Hunk found out Lance was a cat person where he was a dog person. Lance liked the color blue where he liked yellow. It was nice to learn all the stupid meaningless facts about someone. The kind of things that you asked on a first date.

"What kind of music do you listen to?" Lance asked, well into the evening. The sun was setting and it was painting both the boys in a soft yellow light.

"Anything with a melody really," Hunk replied. He loved music; he swore it was magic sometimes. The way you could feel the maker's feelings and the way the music could change yours. One song could immediately make his day better. Lance let a pleased hum slip past his lips at his answer,

"Me too actually. I don’t really like country though. I can’t get past the strange accents," Lance let out another laugh and Hunk was beginning to realize that Lance laughed a lot.

"Really? Do you have any recommendations?" Hunk always liked getting new songs to listen to and listening to songs other people liked was a good way to learn about the person.

"I've been really jamming with EDEN lately. Have you heard of him?" Yeah, Hunk had heard of him. He knows he's pretty popular but he's only ever downloaded one of his songs.

"Yeah, I've never really looked into him though. I've only heard one of his songs though: "Wake Up". " Hunk had found the song by accident while on shuffle through SoundCloud and he ended up really liking it.

"Yeah, that’s a good one. Try "Rock and Roll". That’s my favorite of his. What about you? Have any song recommendation/s," Lance tried; hoping to achieve the same thing Hunk was going for earlier.

"If you like EDEN you should try Daughter, I think their stuff is similar. They have some good songs, I recently discovered a good one called mothers," Hunk replied, eager to find someone who he could talk to about music.

"Mothers by Daughter hey?" Lance giggled a little bit at the ironic name, "Okay. But It is getting pretty late and I still need to finish my homework. So I'm going to go listen to that song and I’ll give you feedback tomorrow? " 

Hunk let out a little horrified noise at the realization that Lance had homework and he had kept him distracted for hours with his talking, "Oh uh yeah, see you tomorrow Lance."  
Lance showed a gentle smile, not unlike the one he had given Matias that morning, and it made Hunks heart sting a little.

"Good night Hunk."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, so which of the first meetings did you like the best? I tried to make them a little funny. I had hoped to write 2 000 words but then I accidentally wrote 3 000 as you do so, yeah. Hopefully, there will be a chapter up next week since exams are then and ill be home for half the day. Well, enjoy your Sunday night.


	4. Coconut Bread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's beauty, he's grace, he is definitely not straight.

“Burning cities and napalm skies, fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes, your ocean eyes.”  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Today was going to be a good day. Not only was it a weekend but also today Hunk had work. Work days aren’t something most people celebrate, but Hunk loves his job. He works at a small little bakery tucked in-between a bank and a thrift store in a quiet shopping district. It was a very relaxed job; in fact, Hunk had gotten the job entirely on accident.

Hunk had previously baked some mini cakes for a bake sale his school had to fundraise. When one of the teachers had called him over saying someone wanted to talk to the person who made the cakes Hunk had assumed to worse. However, when he approached, there was a loud man with shocking orange hair swinging a half-eaten cake around shouting about how good they tasted. Turns out the excitable man was named Coran and was the proud owner of a bakery. He had practically begged Hunk to work for him. Hunk had school but Coran insisted that his hours could be flexible: less like a schedule and more like a suggestion. After that Hunk had tried to come to the bakery at least once a weekend. Coran never complained when he never made that goal though. 

It had taken the Samoan an embarrassingly long time to realize that Coran was the uncle that Allura had moved to America with. He had no idea until one day Allura walked into the bakery and kissed Coran right on the cheek and then swiftly moved to the back room to do homework. Coran had never laughed so hard in his life when he saw the look on Hunks face.

The bakery was pretty understaffed; only two other people worked at the establishment, a lovely girl named Shay and her brother Rax. Hunk got along well with Shay, Rax just tended to ignore him despite Hunks attempts at friendship. Hunk easily repaid the favor.

Today when he walked through the door he was welcomed by the gentle chime of the bell, the fresh smell of bread, and the smiling face of Shay. There was only a single customer sitting at a small round table, periodically sipping a cup of tea and taking bites of his strawberry tart while holding a small paperback book in his hand. 

Coran popped his head out from where he had been crouching behind the counter to see who had come in, "Oh hello, Hunk!" Coran greeted and Shay gently lifted her hand to him. Hunk returned the welcome and swiftly put on his blue apron, already set upon a new recipe he found online the other day. Coran had stopped briefly to inquire what he was doing but other than that left Hunk to his own devices.

Once Hunk had pulled out his "Extremely Delicious Soft Chocolate Soufflé of Wonder," (He was still working on the name) out of the oven Shay had rushed to his side, "Oooo so what’s this?"

"Chocolate soufflé, care to taste test with me?" Hunk offered Shay, knowing she’d never refuse some of Hunks baking. So he pulled out a dish and set the dessert on top, retrieving two forks for the pair to eat with. 

Shay made a little noise of delight and eagerly took a bite. Hunk followed suit and soon the two were shoving forkfuls of soufflé into their mouths. Coran was less than impressed that they hadn’t saved any for him. 

Hunk was working at the till after that (not that there was much to work). The store was empty, which really wasn’t that surprising considering the time. Hunk didn’t stay bored for long though because he heard a shrill bing from his phone. He pulled it out to inspect the notification and was surprised to see a message from an unknown number,

403-XXX-XXX: Hey, It’s Lance

Oh, that’s right; Hunk had given Lance his phone number so they could text. In fact, that was several days ago so it’s strange that they hadn’t texted until now.

Hunk: Oh Hi. How are you? 

Hunk replied after taking a brief moment to give Lance a contact.

Lance Things are good wbu?

Hunk: I’m doing pretty good. Made a beautiful dessert at work today

Lance: Oh! So that’s where you are. I didn’t see u this morning so I was kind of wondering ʅฺ(・ω・。)ʃฺ？？

Hunk: Yeah, I work at a bakery

Lance: No way really? Dude, you still have to teach me how to work your food magic.

Hunk had actually kind of forgotten that he told Lance he’d teach him how to bake. I guess it had kind of slipped his mind. So Hunk thought for a second before deciding that there was no reason they couldn’t just do that this afternoon.

Hunk: You can come over to my house after lunch if you want? 

Lance: Wait actually?

Hunk: Yeah sure, unless you’re busy?

Lance: Nope! See you at 1! (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

 

Hunk left work a tad early today so that he’d have lots of time to prepare for Lance. When he arrived home early his parents had inquired as to why. There was no lack of a smile on his face as he told them that Lance was coming over. 

Hunk quickly freshened himself up. He’d die a million deaths before he got caught with flour in his hair. So after double and triple checking that he was completely free of flour, he went to the kitchen to look through his box of recipes, just to get an idea. He skimmed through each recipe card, never finding the right one. This one was too hard, this one too boring, this one was too messy and this one he didn’t have all the ingredients. He was going to so fast he almost missed the bright yellow card, but he quickly doubled back once the recipe sunk into his brain. It wasn’t perfect by any means but it had something the others didn’t. 

He pulled out the card and set it next to the toaster.

When there was a firm knock on the door Hunk shot off to answer the door. His moms barely hid looks of amusement when they followed behind their son. 

Hunk swung open the door to reveal Lance in all his glory. Lance’s smile managed to grow bigger at the sight of his new friend, “Hey Hunk!”

“Hey! Come in come in,” He invited, gesturing widely with his arm. Lance gracefully stepped through the threshold, Hunk coming in behind him. When Lance saw Hunks moms he gave them a polite smile,

“Emere, Abby, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Glad to see you’re in good health Lance, please come in,” Emere replied, always one to have proper manners. Hunk appeared beside Lance, giving his moms a loving smile.

“I believe I was about to introduce Lance to the art of baking,” He twisted his head to smirk at Lance, hoping to tease him a little bit. Lance, however, took it completely in stride, bending at the waist in a bow and holding his hands out in front of him,

“Please teach me your ways Sensei.” Hunk tried to laugh away his blush caused from being addressed with such a reverent tone, even if it was just teasing. Hunk took Lance by the shoulders, desperately leading him into the kitchen away from his mother’s giggling.

“Ok time to get to business. Did you have anything that you wanted to bake in mind?” Hunk asked his friend, never one to try and push what he wanted to do on someone. Guests always came first.

“Nah, I figured I should leave that up to the master. I’d probably pick something completely out of my league or something,” Hunk did his best to wipe the pleased look off his face but wasn’t entirely sure how successful he was.

“Well, I did have an idea, but it’s a little different and just a suggestion so we can always change it,” Hunk replied, reaching for the yellow card he put on the counter earlier. Both of Lance’s eyebrows raised in what Hunk could only hope was curiosity, “It’s called Fa’apapa, it’s a Samoa dish. It’s like coconut bread I guess. I mean I understand that you might want to learn how to bake something more familiar for your family so if you don’t want to that’s totally fine. It’s just that we’re still learning about each other and I thought this might be a good way to share something about me. And I thought t-“

“It sounds like a great idea Hunk! I’d love to learn how to make Fa’apapa!” Lance interrupted his panicked explanation, only kind of mispronouncing the name of the dish.

“Oh! Uh, yeah sure okay. Let’s do this then. I guess we can each make a piece for ourselves.”

So Hunk carefully instructed and led lance through each of the steps. Mixing the coconut milk and flakes, then adding the flour and baking powder, and then kneading the dough (which Lance had repeatedly expressed was his favorite part so far). The two boys carefully sculpted their dough into 1-inch slabs and wrapped them in greased parchment paper, before gently putting them into the oven to bake.

Hunk wasn’t sure if the Samoan dish was a good idea or not at first but that thought was immediately smashed into smithereens by the look on Lance’s face as he put in his bread to bake. Hunk thought he might burst he looked so excited. 

“So tell me a little about Fa’apapa. What do you know about it?” Lance had asked Hunk as they were waiting. He hadn’t really thought Lance would be interested. He was more than happy to elaborate though,

“Tinā used to make it a lot with our Samoan oven, an umu, when we lived on the island. When we moved there was a lot of culture shock, even if I don’t remember the move a whole lot. I think the familiar food though helped ease my little kid nerves about being in a foreign land.”

“Wow, that’s awesome Hunk. You’ll have to show me how to make some other dishes from Samoa. I love trying new foods and it’s not like there are Samoan restaurants anywhere here right?” Lance replied wholeheartedly. Hunk was caught off guard; having no idea his neighbor would be so excited about food. He agreed to show Lance more recipes and the rest of the time before the dish was finished was filled with casual conversation. Lance had asked about his work and Hunk had asked about how Matias was fairing.

The oven had interrupted Lance in the middle of a story about Lucas when he was a baby, so Hunk put on some oven mitts and took the pan, where they had set the bread, on top of the counter on a cutting board. Hunk had made the mistake of putting a hot pan directly on the countertop once and god have mercy on the poor souls who damaged Emere’s furniture in any way.

Lance carefully unwrapped his piece of bread, Hunk doing the same next to him. Once each of the boys held the food in their hands they looked at each other briefly before simultaneously taking a bite. Hunk had seen the face Lance was making a million times, one of pure delight, but it still sent a shiver up his spine. Lance sang the foods praise, and Hunk reminded him that it was him who made it. Lance wouldn’t stop talking about what parts he liked and why and how he could see the coconut and unimportant stuff like that, but Hunk didn’t find himself annoyed. He thought the feeling in his stomach was more like endearing. 

Hunk had just popped the last bite into his mouth when Lance piped up, “Hey Hunk, what would you say to a walk? It’s a really nice day out and I’m still working on becoming familiar with the area.”

“Yeah, that sounds wonderful.”

 

The two boys had decided to take a simple walk around the neighborhood, they’d be no more than an hour they were sure. They were walking side by side, Hunk was telling Lance about his school friends. He kept his head forward so he could see where he was going when he felt Lance press into the side of him. He snapped his head towards Lance, looking for some kind of explanation to the sudden closeness. Lance wasn’t even facing his direction though; he was looking across the street. Hunk followed his gaze to the site of a middle-aged man walking a Labrador. Hunks first instinct was to ask Lance if he wanted to go pet it but one look at his face shut that idea down. 

Lance looked downright petrified. His eyes shone a mix of fear and hate. Hunk had never seen such an expression on the usually smiling boy. Lance had pressed into him even closer by now and had one arm around his waist. Lance didn’t let them out of his site until he was sure they were long gone.

“Do you know that man Lance?” Hunk asked, scared that maybe the man had done something awful to the blue-eyed boy.

“What? No?” Lance asked and Hunk could obviously see his genuine confusion. If it wasn’t that then wh- 

“Are…are you afraid of dogs?” Hunk asked incredulously. The question was confirmed when a deep red blush swam all the way up Lance’s face and even to his ears. Cute Hunk thought, not at all prepared for it. Where had that come from? Hunk had completely missed Lances embarrassed fumbling, far more occupied with where his train of thought had just gone to. Did he think Lance was cute? I mean he was certainly good looking. He had nice eyes and his hair looked soft. I wonder what it would feel like if I ran my hands through it- Holy shit gay thoughts be gone we are not going there nuh uh. 

Hunk spared a glance towards the boy, whose blush had lightened but was still there. He was pouting and marching forward; apparently upset his little fear had been revealed.  
“Hey Lance, do you have any other song recommendations? I listened to that EDEN song you suggested and I really liked it,” Hunk decided that he needed some conversation to lead his thoughts away from Lance. 

“Oh yeah! I listened to your song too. It was good, the lyrics didn’t make any sense but lyrics never meant much to me anyways. Hmmm okay, what about a different genre this time?” Lance asked but never actually gave Hunk time to reply before making his suggestion, “’I Don’t Even Care About You’ by MISSIO, it’s alternative I think. Like EDEN it’s kind of hard to categorize. But where EDEN is all soft beats and gentle vocals MISSIOS stuff is more fast drums and dark lyrics. Plus their hair is boss so if that isn’t enough reason I don’t know what is.”

“Alright, got it. Guess I should return the favor. If we’re going to more dark alternative stuff I’d suggest ‘Blood In The Cut’ by K.Flay. I think it might have similar tones.”  
Lance nodded his head, repeating it a few times to ensure he remembered it.

 

When Hunk laid in his bed that night after dropping Lance back home and eating supper he finally addressed those weird thought earlier on his walk. Hunk was very in tune with himself and he knew that those thoughts needed to be evaluated. CUTE Is that something most friends think about each other? Did he ever catch himself thinking Shiro or Keith was cute? I mean he always thought they were kind of hot, but this felt different. Whereas Shiro and Keith being hot was just a fact, Lance being cute felt like something he shouldn’t admit to himself. 

What about Lance is cute? Hunk had decided to go down that road with his thoughts. His eyes, they look like- like- I don’t even know they're just so incredibly beautiful. And his wrists are so tiny. I could probably wrap my thumb and pinky around them. And his fingers are long and delicate. He moves with so much grace. His lips are a beautiful pale pink and I bet if I touched them they’d be soft and would probably feel really nice an- HOLY SHIT.

Hunk rolled over onto his stomach, smashing his face into his pillow and screaming into it, kicking his legs spastically like some kind of teenage girl with a crush.

He totally had a crush on Lance.

Maybe Hunk wouldn’t have felt so embarrassed by that fact if he had known Lance was having the exact same thought process no more than 10 feet from him in his own bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can not convince me Lance doesn't use those ridiculous Japanese emoticons, fight me. Also, I keep writing way more than my goal every chapter and I don't know if that's because I'm being too wordy or my goal is just too short for the plot points in each chapter so let me know in the comments. Am I going to slow? Too fast? Please tell me cause I still don't have a beta reader.


	5. Skinny Jeans and 5-Inch Heels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk learns something new about his wonderful buddy Lance.

“I feel life for the very first time love in my arms and sun in my eyes.”  
\-----------------------------------------------------------

It was Wednesday when Hunk finally told his friends about Lance.

They were all sitting at the lunch table; Keith and Pidge were shouting about the new episodes of a show they watched (Hunk picked up something about space cats?) and Allura and Shiro were talking about how awful one of the new student teachers were. 

“Hey, so did you guys know I got a new neighbor?” Hunk started, crunching casually into his celery stick. He tried to look nonchalant, not ready to admit how fond he was of Lance to his friends quite yet. Of course, Pidge, the witch she is, saw right through him. She raised an eyebrow and gave Hunk a sideways look which Hunk wished he didn’t see and could play off as such. But Pidge saw him see it and took full amusement in the fact he chose to ignore her.

“Really? When did they move in?” Keith unknowingly interrupted the two childhood friend’s silent ‘conversation’. 

“A week ago. They are quite the big family, 7 of them. One of the boys is my age actually,” Hunk elaborated to the interested table. Hunk was sure that this new fact put a cheeky smile on Pidge’s face but he would rather die than turn to face her. 

“Oh, what’s his name?” Shiro asked after taking a careful bite of his spicy chicken wings that he’d made in home ec. 

“Lance McClain,” Hunk answered but almost immediately regretted it when he saw the possibly horrified look cross over Allura’s face. Her eyes had gone wide and her eyebrows rose into her bangs. She suddenly stood up and slapped her hands on top of the table. Hunk wanted to know how Allura knew Lance and what he did that warranted that reaction.

“Do you have a picture?” She said calmly, contradicting her earlier display of shock. 

“Um no, but he’s Hispanic, really tall, blue eyes and short brown hair,” Hunk described his neighbor, indicating his height with a hand, only going slightly below his own head. Hunk was a very tall guy so it truly was an accomplishment. 

“Oh my god,” was the frightening reply from his white-haired friend, “Lance moved in next to you?” She said incredulously. Hunk couldn’t tell if her reaction was a happy one or an angry one and Hunk was scared that he’d be told Lance was a terrible person for doing an awful thing to his friend. 

“Care to explain this far from normal reaction?” Shiro finally asked the question they had all been wondering. Clearly, Allura knew Lance so what was the story? How’d they meet?

“Lance goes to my dance studio,” Hunk let out a breath he had been holding. Allura was a ballerina at a prestigious dance academy, and apparently, Lance also went there.

“Wait Lance goes to the dance academy?!”

“Yeah, he’s gone for a number of years now. He’s really talented!” It wasn’t often that someone got praise from Allura on their dancing. She would ruthlessly critique any dancing she saw, whether it be at prom or on a cheesy TV show, “Do you guys want to see videos?”

Allura’s studio often posted videos on YouTube of the dancers doing their thing. Allura had once explained that it’s to bring in some ad revenue as well as get some publicity or something like that. So Allura took out her phone and quickly brought up a video, “He’s the lead in this one, here watch.”

Hunk watched the video fade in to show three boys standing in a triangle and many people watching from the sidelines. Hunk had some small thought of doubt in his head until he saw that the person at the point of the triangle was clearly Lance. Hunk prayed Pidge didn’t see the blush on his face when he spotted the boy. Lance was wearing black skinny jeans and a black T-Shirt but the kicker was the way his hair was messy and the fact he was wearing knee-high, leather, 5-inch high heel boots. The other boys wore similarly flattering outfits and high heels.

The music started, some kind of pop song, probably about sex, not that Hunk was paying any attention to the lyrics. He was far too busy staring at Lance. He would throw his arms out in strong, solid moves only to switch into more fluid movements to match with the beats of the song. It was like watching someone become rock solid only to turn into water. The way the dancers were all perfectly synced together and matched the song made Hunk think that this was what singing with your body must look like. The song was obviously supposed to be sexy and it showed that so well that Hunk was scared someone would notice the heat his face was taking on. Not only was the choreography showing the allure of the dancers but also the facial expressions. Lance always looked confident but in that moment he looked like he could, and would, gladly step on you and he knew you’d enjoy it. He was struck with fear every time they spun or jumped, afraid that they’d fall and get hurt. He watched them kick their perfectly straight legs over their heads and run their hands through their hair slowly while slowly thrusting their hips. 

And then it was over. Hunk was too busy watching Lance and his dance mates suddenly drop their sexy façade for breathing heavily and laughing to notice Pidge snickering at his flushed state. 

“Holy shit those must have been 5-inch heels how did they not fall and die?!” Keith shouted at Allura. He too carried a small blush, not at all competing with Hunks. 

“Funny story actually,” Allura began, “A couple of years ago we were watching a video of some dancers dancing in heels and one of the boys made a comment about how hard that’d be. A girl replied something along the lines that a boy couldn’t even walk in high heels let alone dance so of course, it’d be hard for them. After that, the boys started dancing in heels and would wear them in any dance they could convince the instructor to let them just to spite her.” Here Allura turned to a stunned Hunk to ask if that was the same person who moved in,

“Oh my god, my new neighbor is amazing,” Hunk let slip through, not intending to give such honest praise. At that point, Pidge lost all self-control and burst into laughter. Allura also laughed and offered Hunk to send him the link to some other dances he’s in. Hunk normally might have been embarrassed about how fast he agreed but he was still in ‘Holy shit Lance is hot and can dance’ mode. Not that he’d ever admit that thought out loud. 

 

When Hunk got home that day he wasted no time in going to his bedroom window. He wanted to confront Lance about his hobby. He had spent any free time during the school day to watch more videos of Lance. He’d seen videos where it was just him, videos where there were at least 10 other dancers, videos where he was front and center and videos where he was merely in the background. He’d watched him dance everything from ballet and contemporary to hip-hop and modern. 

He looked out his window but Lance wasn’t on the other side. Maybe he should’ve waited until Lance showed up but he was desperate to express his new discovery, 

Hunk: Hey Lance, if you’re not busy I’m at my window and I have a question for you

he texted to Lance, hoping he would reply sooner rather than later.

Lance showed up at his window no more than a minute later. He saw Hunk, smiled, then came to slide the window open, “Hey, Hunk. What’s up?” 

“So I have this friend Allura and when I told her about you she said you went to the same dance studio as her and she showed me some videos of you dancing! Lance, you were so cool!” Hunk blurted, similarly as earlier not intending to be that honest. Lance’s whole face rapidly turned pink and he hid behind his hands,

“Oh my god, you’re friends with Allura? Oh no no no she probably showed you so many awful dances. Which one did she show you first?” He replied from behind his hands. He shook his head in dismay, praying she hadn’t shown Hunk THAT video. Of course, when Hunk had said the song name Lance let out an embarrassed squeak.

“You’re so good at dancing Lance! I would love to see it sometime?” Hunk praised, hoping he could get Lance’s blush to retreat by showing he had no need to feel embarrassed. His words had the opposite effect as the pink blush turned bright red and Lance’s hands dropped in surprise revealing a spluttering teenage boy.

“U-uh thank you. I, um, actually got in on a scholarship. Hah, lucky me I guess. I use the prize money from competitions to help out the family…so…yeah.”

“That’s so cool, I-“ Hunk was cut off by a shout of Lance’s name coming from inside the house. Lance looked annoyed and barked out a reply in Spanish. 

“I, uh, sorry. I’m looking after my siblings until my sisters get home,” Lance’s statement was accented by a loud crash followed by wailing; “I should probably go.” Before Hunk could think about the consequences of his actions he sputtered,

“Do you want some help?” Hunk’s mouth seemed to be working before his brain quite a lot today. Lance, who had already been in the middle of closing his window, had a look of shocked relief. However, he quickly scolded his features into something more polite and was about to decline the generous offer until Hunk interrupted him, “I really don’t mind. I’ll be over in a few seconds.”

Lance had looked reluctant for exactly 0.3 seconds before he nodded determinedly and closed the window. Hunk wasted no time in getting out the door and over to the McClain household. 

When Hunk knocked he heard a familiar voice shout “Let yourself in, it’s unlocked!” Hunk opened the door to reveal quite the scene. There was a sulking Matias in the corner, a whimpering Nicholas standing in front of an annoyed Lance, who was sticking a decent sized band-aid on the little boy's shoulder. 

“Hunk?” Matias questioned when Hunk walked into the living room. Nicholas attention was brought to him and he turned his head to look at him,

“Hunk,” he copied, sniffing his nose one more time before running over to Matias.

“Hey, Hunk,” Lance greeted kindly waving him over. Lance was about to say something else when he was interrupted by Hunk screaming. There was a huge spider on the floor. It was totally the width of Hunks foot, and Hunk had big feet. Hunk froze in fear, looking desperately at Lance. 

Lance tried to hide a laugh behind his hand as he reached for a paper towel off the counter. He walked up to the spider and swiftly crushed and wiped it up with the paper towel, doing his best to not laugh. He was the one scared of dogs after all. 

“I got you buddy,” Lance cheered as he tossed the paper towel into the garbage.

 

Hunk was sitting on the couch with Lance several hours later, watching Matias and Nicholas playing Wii Sports. Lance was commentating excitedly which seemed to energize the boys and intensify the competition. 

“Your music suggestions were really good Lance, If you want to swap songs again I thought of a good category?” Hunk stated during a lull in Lance’s commentary.

“Oh yeah? Sure, what is it?” Lance asked, turning to face Hunk and showing one of his standard 1000 watt smiles. Hunk smiled back and answered,

“Songs we used to like as kids.”

“OOOOoooooh that’s good. Kay, you go first,” Lance replied, eagerly awaiting Hunks recommendation. 

“Hmmm, Poker Face by Lady Gaga will always be a classic.”

“Oh my god that song was the bomb! Okay, mine would be~ Circus by Britney Spears,” Hunk found it strangely fitting that Lance was a Britney Spears fanboy and he wasn’t able to hide a small giggle.

“Hey, Britney Spears was a queen.”

Hunk just watched in amusement as Lance defended the honor of Britney Spears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You cannot convince me Lance didn't fawn over Britney Spears as a kid. Also, this chapter is a lot shorter than my previous but it is also much closer to my words per chapter goal. I feel like this may have been a little rushed but I really don't know so let me hear your opinion in the comments, please. Also, the dance scene was loosely inspired by the beginning of this video https://youtu.be/hZWv4jwbRxA if you want to check it out.


	6. 250 Cupcakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baking shenanigans, please save Hunk

"Don't you stop the music, get into it, won't you dance with me?"  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

'How?’ That was Hunk’s first thought at the school's request. How could they possibly want him bake 250 cupcakes for their bake sale by tomorrow? Did they realize how many cupcakes that was to make AND decorate? They hadn’t even given him any warning! Hunk hung his head into his hands,

“How am I gonna make 250 cupcakes by tomorrow Pidge?” He cried into his hands. Pidge, who was unsympathetic, took a bite out of her sandwich. The lunch table consisted of all of Hunk’s friends per usual, said friends were all looking at Hunk in concern for his sanity.

 

“You could ask for some help from the bakery guys?” Pidge suggested. Hunk had already asked all of his friends to help, and they agreed, but of course, they all had after school activities to do so they couldn’t come until later.

“I already did, they were all busy,” Hunk replied, sinking down to lay his head on the table. He needed all the help he could get, so anybody he knew he needed to ask. Oh, wait…

“You could ask Lance?” Allura suggested, “He’s probably free, he doesn’t have any dance classes today, and then the rest of us could meet him.” Hunk lifted his head from the table, already going to reach for his phone and sent a quick text to Lance.

The group all withheld their breaths, the fate of their friend rested in Lance’s hands after all.

 

Lance: Yeah, I’m free. Have something for me to do?

They all smiled, except for Hunk, he blushed.

Hunk: I need to bake 250 cupcakes by tomorrow.

Lance: I’m not very good at baking…. (ﾟ⊿ﾟ)

Hunk: That’s fine, I need as much help as I can get. Can you come right after school?

Lance: Only if I get a free cupcake in return （；￣︶￣）

Hunk: Deal! You’re a godsend! Thanks

Lance: Np

Maybe Hunk would survive this after all.

 

 

Lance had shown up at his door right after he got home. He looked as beautiful, not that Hunk ever thought about how beautiful Lance was.

 

“Hey Hunk, just tell me how I can help,” Lance greeted so Hunk wasted no time in getting him to start lining muffin tins. Hunk all the while started to mix ingredients.

“Why do you need to bake 251 cupcakes anyway?” Lance asked not pausing in his duty of popping colorful cupcake wrappers into the tins. Hunk had just started the first batch in the mixer and was about to start the second batch of batter.

“A bake sale for my school, I couldn’t just say no. Also, the rest of my school friends are coming over later,” Hunk informed over the whir of the oven heating up. When he told his moms about the cupcakes, they had made sure to get out of the way and do their own thing. In fact, Hunk thought he remembered them say something about a park.

“Oh, cool. You’ve talked about them before. Allura, who I know, and her boyfriend Shiro,” he paused and looked at Hunk for confirmation and didn’t continue until he got it, “and Shiro’s brother Ken and your childhood friend Pidge?” Hunk couldn’t help but snort at the mistake.

“Don’t let Keith hear you call him Ken. He takes taekwondo, he will not hesitate to fight you,” he warned Lance, nobody wants to mess with Keith. Given his temper and his ability to destroy basically anyone he wants, he’s a force to be reckoned with.

“Oh right! Keith. He and Shiro take taekwondo?” Lance asked, and from there Hunk dived into accurate descriptions of his friends and the scenarios they had found themselves in. All the while the two boys worked on the cupcakes. Hunk had even let Lance start pouring the batter into the tins (after a demonstration of the proper technique).

 

The two boys had gotten through 10 dozen cupcakes and had established a sort of rhythm, Hunk would mix the batter while Lance would prepare the tins and then pour the batter, by then the cupcakes from the previous round would be done and they’d take them out to decorate together while putting the new batch in to bake. Then they’d start all over again, they needed 22 dozen after all, in order to have 250 cupcakes plus extras for everyone coming to help. Long ago they had run out of conversation topics and had elected to play some music. Lance was busying himself with the tins when a flash of movement caught Hunks attention.

Lance was swinging his hips back and forth to the music. It wasn’t nearly as elaborate or as sharp as what Hunk had seen in the videos, but the careless way Lance moved had its own charm to it. He didn’t seem to notice Hunk watching and continued to do completely random steps that could be done in the minimal space. Some were just flashy arms, others were little spins. Lance would add a little head move in now and again, but Hunk much preferred the chest movements.

“Alright!” Lance began, “All done with the tins, how’s the progress on the batter, Hunk?” he now turned to face the pink baker. Hunk of course had been too absorbed in Lance to actually make much progress on the batter which left him sputtering for an explanation.

 

“I-I was just just you know? Doing, uh, thinking abo-“

Lance’s head fell forward as he giggled, “Sorry was I distracting you? This song’s just really catchy and I couldn’t help myself.”

“Oh, uh, no it’s okay. You looked really cool,” Hunk replied, trying to salvage some piece of dignity he had left.

“You, don’t have to lie to me,” Lance laughed again, “that was completely just a mess of freestyle you know?”

“Yeah, but it worked. You just kind of did whatever you felt like, you looked like you were having fun…I guess,” Hunk tried, beginning to stir his batter again, lest they get off schedule. And what he said was true. When Lance was dancing he may not have looked professional but that’s what made it look better. It was less about doing the choreography right and more about feeling the music, and Lance expressed his feelings about that song perfectly in Hunk’s opinion.

“Well, I’m flattered. I’d love to dance with you sometime,” Lance grinned at Hunk encouragingly. He was fully aware that his words had two meanings, of course, he wouldn’t mind dancing with Hunk, or dancing with Hunk, so he thought he might see how Hunk interpreted it.

 

“I can’t dance to save my life,” Hunk had put up his arms in exasperation. Hunk’s mom had tried to teach him how to slow dance once, but Hunk was so big and bulky that he didn’t look elegant at all. And whenever he tried dancing for fun he always ended up either knocking something over or being made fun of. So yeah Hunk didn’t dance.

“Nonsense, dancing isn’t about doing anything right or wrong, it’s about expression. Have you ever heard the saying: “Dance to express not to impress”? Just do that! It doesn’t matter if you look like an idiot while doing it, just do it ya know?” Lance tried to explain, but he never could explain the sense of satisfaction he got from dancing. Just the feeling of being able to connect with music through his body left him feeling whole, and he wanted to share that with Hunk. No one should be left out of dance.

Hunk had opened his mouth to reply when the oven beeped signalling the cupcake’s finish. Hunk and Lance panicked, realizing they were behind schedule and rushed to fill the oven back up with a new batch.

It wasn’t until they had a plate of treats in front of them, ready for decorating did Hunk pick the conversation back up.

“I want to hear more about your dance, how did you get into it? What’s your favorite part about it? What kind of stories about it do you have? What’s some unspoken rules of dance I wouldn’t know?” Hunk had asked, genuinely curious about dance, but more so about Lance. Lance had looked surprised, no one had ever bothered to ask him about his hobbies, but he’s always been very passionate about this one.

“Well I started back when I was really little, 4 or 5 I think. And apparently I couldn’t sit still, like at all, I had so much energy. My mom said I used to always ‘dance’,” Lance paused here to stage whisper, “ jump and spin around, when music came on to expel all that extra energy. So she signed me up for a hip-hop class, so at least that way I could expel my energy in a useful way. Apparently I loved it, and eventually, just hip-hop wasn’t enough. So over time I learned more and more dances, moved to more advanced studios, and entered competitions until I got to where I am today.” Hunk had stared at the smile on Lance’s face. It was unlike all the other ones he’s seen so far. This one showed pride and content, joy clearly shown by the gentle curve of his lips. This reminded Hunk of his other questions.

“That’s so cool Lance. What’s your favorite part about dance?”

“Hmmm, I’m picking two. One would be the people I meet. I get to connect and learn from so many people, young and old, girls and guys. I’ve made so many friends through dance. Two would be the feeling. I can’t explain it well, but there is something about dancing that just sends this pleasant feeling through me. It’s satisfying and freeing, rewarding and fun. It’s really impossible to explain, so just trust me on this one,” Lance looked so happy smiling while talking about his passion, it must have inspired him because he decorated his next cupcake with a big smiley face. “Did you want to hear some dance stories now?” He asked, and Hunk was quick to confirm.

“Ok, so like the number one rule of dancing is that you don’t stop. It doesn’t matter what happens, you don’t quit halfway through a dance. One time I watched an entire group do half a song without music because there was a technical difficulty and their music cut out halfway. But this story is about a girl. She came to a competition as a special guest from a professional company in Africa. At one point in her dance, her costume malfunctioned and she lost her top. She was completely naked on her top half. But she finished the dance, with full boob out. Honestly, I was so impressed, and so was everyone else. No one was grossed out or upset, just impressed.” From there Lance continued telling stories about his time at dance as they worked on baking, he told ones about his friend who kicked a hole in the wall once or the time he managed to cut his toe somehow without noticing and ended up spreading blood all across the studio floor. Lance’s stories had managed to make the time pass a little quicker.

 

“These competitions seem really hardcore,” Hunk had mentioned after Lance had told him about his friend who passed out on stage during the adjudication.

“Yeah, if you wanted to, you could come to my next one this weekend?” Lance asked, trying to keep the hopeful tone out of his voice. He didn’t want to make it seem like a big deal.

“Really!? I’d love to come Lance! Do I need to buy tickets or anything?” Hunk was more than happy to go, he wanted to see Lance dance in person. He wanted to witness these competitions that seemed to nerve-racking and formal. He wanted to be there to support Lance.

“No, you pay an admission fee when you enter, and they’ll give you a wristband,” Lance explained, feeling a little nervous at his friend’s interest. He’d hate to disappoint him somehow.

 

After that, the conversation went to the etiquette of dance competitions.

 

Lance had almost forgotten about Hunk’s friends. When a knock was heard at the door he completely started panicking, he wanted to make a good impression on Hunk’s friends. Hunk opened the door and in came four people. He immediately singled out Allura and went to go greet the familiar face.

 

“Lance!” She cheered before wrapping him up in a hug, “ I haven’t seen you since the Dance Extreme competition!”

“Yeah, I only occasionally get a glance at you in the studio. I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”

 

With that introductions were made, sparing Lance the possibility of embarrassing himself. Everyone made their way into the kitchen, they only had 5 dozen more to make but the help was appreciated nonetheless.

Lance spent his time learning about all of the new people he was meeting. He spoke to Shiro about science, both of their favorite subjects, and more specifically space. Pidge and he had gotten into a really intense conversation about a new series on Netflix and their theories about the next season. Keith had taken a little more work to get along with, but when he discovered his love for ‘emo’ bands they hit off right away, filling each other’s brains with conversations about My Chemical Romance and Panic! At The Disco.

 

When Hunk added the finishing touches to the last cupcake everyone cheered in joy. 264 cupcakes were made that day. 22 dozen. 14 extras were made in order to get an even number of treats plus enough for everyone to have 2, plus 2 for Hunk’s moms when they came back from their date. Lance was biting into a butterfly decorated cake when a thought had come to him,

“Hey Allura, do you think everyone here might want to come to the competition this weekend?”

“You have a dance competition this weekend!?” Pidge shrieked in offense. How dare they not invite her already?

“Yeah, if you guys want, we can text you a schedule and you guys can come see us if you’d like?” Allura offered. She had never thought that her friends might want to come.

“Yeah, but Lance doesn’t have our phone numbers yet. Pidge can you add him to the group chat?” Keith added, knowing Pidge she’d want to cause as much chaos between Hunk and Lance as possible so she’d never refuse.

“What kind of etiquette is there? What do we wear? Lance? Allura?” Shiro asked, panicking about social standards. Heaven forbid he stood out somehow. So Hunk, Lance, and the gang spent the next few hours carefully planning for the weekend.

Hunk couldn’t wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so first of all very very grateful thanks to my new beta reader @PythagoreanPineapples. Honestly this looks so much better with their help. Also I'm a dancer and all of Lance's stories are from my own personal experiences. Hope you enjoyed!


	7. Spotlight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is the dancing king

“Oh don’t you dare look back, just keep your eyes on me. I said you’re holding back. She said shut up and dance with me.”  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The weekend had come, and with it: anxiety. Hunk had talked with Lance every day leading up to the competition and had gotten a behind the scenes view of a dancers preparation. Hunk had to admit that when Lance told him (in excruciating detail) the nerves he got backstage, or the way his brain blanked out while performing, he had begun to respect dancer’s ability to go up on stage.

He even told him how one of his teammates were prone to nausea because of an anxiety disorder and often threw up after performing, and had a special blue bucket with the words “Dance my guts out” scribbled on it. Hunk had a lot of sympathy for that girl; he was sure he’d be the same way, if not worse. When Lance mentioned she was raising money for an organization that dealt with anxiety and other mental illnesses, he had easily reached into his wallet for a five dollar bill so that Lance could pass it on to her. She wasn’t the only person with an anxiety issue; Hunk felt like he was going to throw up as well at just the thought of all the pressure this weekend held.

How should he dress? How big were the crowds? What if he accidentally missed Lances dance? The only balm he had for his worries was the fact that the rest of his friends would also be there. Pidge did always have a way of keeping him mentally together. 

That morning Hunk had made sure to wish Lance good luck and give him encouraging smiles through their windows. Hopefully, it’d help him, even a little. Lance had to leave a lot earlier than the rest of them in order to get makeup and hair done, costume on, stretch his muscles, and go through his first dance. So Hunk had relaxed as he ate breakfast with his sleepy moms… until he wasn’t so relaxed. He was running late. He didn’t even know how but he was behind schedule. Shiro would be here to pick him up in 15 minutes and he wasn’t even dressed yet! He flailed around his room, pulling out items of clothing and leaving a mess as he went.

He was just putting on deodorant when he heard a honk, signaling his rides arrival. Skipping the stairs two at a time he ran through the living room and out the door, waving his moms a hasty goodbye. 

Shiro’s black SUV (or as Pidge would call it: his mom van) was sitting on the street. Hunk could see Keith had shotgun so he opened the back door to sit next to his favorite green gremlin. 

“Hey guys, good morning,” Hunk greeted cheerfully. Shiro started driving and everyone replied to Hunks ‘good morning’ with their own. The competition was at a college apparently. Lance had complained that morning that the stage there was very slippery. 

Shiro had been to a few competitions before, Allura hadn’t figured he’d want to go but he had demanded to see her dance. The competitions could run for several days, however, so they would only stay for a few hours, which meant they wouldn’t get to see all of their friend’s performances. Hunk believed that the few that they would get to see would be fantastic all the same.

When they arrived at the school the parking lot was jammed packed. Shiro had made a comment about how the parking was always like this because every dancer and their grandma were here. 

As Shiro made his rounds through the lanes of cars, looking for an open spot big enough to fit his SUV, Hunk watched little girls in tight buns and red lipstick wheel very large bags into the building. Lance had told him that most dancers carried one of those big bags. A variety of brands made them and they were specifically for dance. They came with rods that you could set up to hang costumes on, right from out of the bag, and when you have 5-10 costumes per dancer plus other things like makeup and tights, this became extremely handy. It was like a portable closet Hunk assumed.

Shiro had finally managed to find a parking spot way at the back, so the four of them took the walk to the front doors. Pidge had seemed strangely excited about the whole thing, even though she normally didn’t appreciate ‘girly’ things. When Hunk had questioned her in the car she had simply said,

“Are you joking?! Dancing is badass!” and then started muttering about the physics of dance. Keith, on the other hand, had seemed disinterested at first but once they entered the building Hunk could see the curious look in his eyes as he took in the scene. 

Little girls, not unlike the ones Hunk had seen earlier, ran between them. There were tables set up for selling some kind of merchandise, a concession, posters, instructors, and more! Hunk was a little overwhelmed and they hadn’t even gotten to the auditorium yet. Pidge was too busy scowling at little girls so Shiro took the lead and led them to another table that was set up for admission.

Everyone took turns paying the 10 dollar entrance fee and getting a purple wristband, just like the ones you get at carnivals. After that, they carefully squeezed past all the people to a set of large doors. Several people stood in front of them and Hunk noticed a man wearing a bright blue shirt standing facing the crowd in the center of the doors. Lance had also mentioned this, it was rude to enter the auditorium when a dance was on stage as it was distracting and disrespectful so staff often controlled when you can and can not enter. 

It was only a couple seconds when the employee opened the doors and everyone went inside to find seats. There was no assigned seating and everyone just sat where there was room. It was hard to find a spot where they could all sit together but they did eventually find a spot a little way back, though Hunk and Shiro were in the row behind Pidge and Keith. 

Dances came and went and they all were very entertaining. Hunk really liked the ballet dance that had a classical version of thunderstruck and the pointѐ solo that was absolutely phenomenal, Hunk wasn’t even a professional and even he could tell that. 

Eventually, Hunk heard the announcer call out a familiar name. Lance and Allura had a ballet duo and Lance had told him to listen for his song, they were up next. The music began playing and out of the wings came bounding Lance, clad in very tight black pants and a very tight striped shirt. He bounced across the stage in time with the elegant music. After a few seconds Hunk had almost thought that something had gone wrong and Allura couldn’t perform when she suddenly came flying out of the wings straight at Lance before jumping into his arms. He lifted her up and she held a miraculous position that must’ve taken amazing upper body strength and Hunk had the straying thought of Allura with abs.

The two bound and leaped across the stage, showing off their endless grace and strength. Honestly, Hunk didn’t think Lance was very beefy but that tight shirt bulged whenever he lifted Allura into the air above his head. The two made it look effortless. Not only did they show strength but flexibility. Hunk saw the duo twist, bend, straighten, and fold their bodies in ways Hunk couldn’t even begin to understand. He watched Allura and Lance do spin after spin after spin in perfect synchronization. He watched Lance jump into a perfect split. He watched him glide across the stage as if he was walking on air. He watched him smile and wave his arms as if demanding the audience to look at him.  
And then the song ended.

They had ended the dance with Lance catching Allura from a jump and then dipping her down, almost parallel to the floor. Allura had arched her back so that her head was nearly touching the ground. The only thing that stopped her from tumbling was Lance’s strong arms around her. If you looked at their faces they both looked completely unaffected by the exertion of their performance. The only tell that they were tired was the rapid movement of both their chest and the way they both had their mouths open slightly so they could take in more oxygen. Lance talked about the faces too, how he had to make the audience believe that dancing was as easy as walking to him.  
The audience clapped loudly for them as they made their way off stage. 

Hunk was lost in awe and didn’t even notice when people around him began to move until he felt an elbow jab into his stomach. He looked to the offender to see a cheeky grin on his annoying short friend. 

“Your face is looking a little red there Hunk~ maybe you’re sick,” Pidge was looking far to accusing for Hunks liking.

Hunk knew it was coming but he still shrunk a little against her gaze. Pidge was cackling, enjoying her teasing a little too much as several people glared and shushed her. Hunk just decided to roll his eyes and follow his friends out of the theatre.

They planned to catch two dances, the next one starting in about an hour. Lance and Allura had promised to come out of there dressing rooms and say hi to them in the lobby. It was also a good opportunity to buy some snacks. So the group all lined up at the concession, buying sodas, chips, and bags of candy. Once that was done they all sat down on an empty bench.

“They looked so cool…” was Keith’s first words, directed at no one in particular. Shiro chuckled a little before wearing a proud smile.

“Allura is the dancing queen,” Shiro announced, throwing a gummy bear into his mouth with surprising accuracy.

“If Allura is the dancing queen, doesn’t that make Lance the dancing king?” Pidge suggested slyly, causing Shiro to look confronted with the idea that Lance was Allura’s king. Yet he couldn’t really argue; Lance certainly was a dancing king.

“I need to learn to dance,” was whispered from Shiro’s lips in reply. He was looking more than a little horrified. Keith looked towards Shiro with pity, chewing on a piece of licorice he said,

“As if you could ever out dance Lance. Did you see some of the stuff he pulled off? I’m convinced he isn’t human at this point,” Hunk couldn’t help but agree, nodding. If Shiro ever had to dance battle with Lance for Allura’s hand he would definitely lose. 

“I don’t think losing Allura to Lance is going to be a problem, Shiro,” Pidge assured him before sending a look at Hunk accompanied by a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. Hunk wondered why he ever decided to be friends with this tiny green witch. 

“What category is the next dance we’re watching again?” Hunk asked, just to say something. He knew of course. Even if Lance didn’t talk about it for three hours last night, he had memorized the schedule.

“It’s musical theatre, Allura isn’t in this one but it should be interesting. Lance does kind of seem like the theatre type,” Shiro replied, looking somewhat forlorn at the lack of his girlfriend. Pidge had just crumpled her bag of salt and vinegar chips and thrown them into a garbage can when she added,

“Do you think Lance will sing?” And oh god the thought of Lance singing sent a shiver through Hunk. Musical theatre was almost always funny but he was filled with a new excitement for the next performance. Suddenly there was a tap on his shoulder. Hunk turned around to see a familiar face smiling at him.

“Camilia!? What are you doing here?” Hunk remembered Camilia from that time he brought snickerdoodles over to the McClain’s house. She was one of Lance’s older sisters.  
“Just supporting my baby brother. I didn’t know you were here? Did you see his ballet duet?” She sat down next to Hunk, not seeming to care about the curious looks she got from the other three teens.

“Yeah, I did. And, um, these are my friends: Keith, Shiro, and Pidge,” Hunk introduced, pointing at each friend at the sound of their name, “and guys’ this is Camilia, Lance’s older sister.”

“Yo,” she stated simply, offering a little wave. She looked at a phone she was holding in her lap, turning it on to see the time.

“Lance should probably be out soon,” She informed the group, so they all began to chat. Mostly talking about dance but Hunk caught Pidge trying to weasel information about Lance out of Camilia. 

“So what’s Lance like?” she asked. If she had asked Hunk he probably would have told her, but he supposed she wanted an unbiased source. Camilia tilted her head in thought.  
“He’s strong,” was all she replied. The group had waited for her to say more, but she seemed satisfied with just that. Pidge opened her mouth to ask what she meant when a new voice interrupted her,

“Hey, guys!” Lance had yelled from across the room, waving his hand. Allura stood beside him and they both began to walk over to the bench. 

As they got closer Hunk noticed Lance’s appearance. Firstly he wore makeup. It wasn’t nearly as exaggerated as Allura’s but Hunk could see dark lines framing his eyes, pink dusted on his cheeks, a slight shine to his lips, and a couple of stray freckles had seemingly disappeared. 

“Hey, you looked great out there kiddo,” Camilia encouraged, loping an arm around Lance’s shoulders. Allura had moved to kiss Shiro in greeting and he put an arm around her waist. He said something about her beauty but Hunk wasn’t really paying attention.

“You looked beautiful Lance,” Hunk impulsively complimented. He stared in shock at his words, immediately imagining the worst. Friends don’t call each other beautiful right? That was weird and now Lance would never want to talk to Hunk ever again. Hunk was snapped out of his panicking by snickering coming from Pidge. 

Hunks line of sight went to Lance’s face, Lance’s very pink face. He momentarily looked about as shocked as Hunk before his shock melted into a soft smile.

“Thanks, Hunk, ballet is a beautiful style isn’t it?” Lance’s smile seemed to brighten even more at the praise. Lance sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, pointedly avoiding his sister’s attempt at sending him suggestive look. 

Hunk was stuck at Lance’s smile though. Lance’s smiles always looked genuine but for some reason, this one was different, more joyful. Hunk didn’t think that was possible but that was the only way he could describe this smile. He was taken out of his trance when Allura returned to Lance’s side. 

“Sorry we can’t stay longer guys, but we really got to go back to our dressing room so that people can find us when they need us,” Allura announced. The whole group quickly finished up any comments and said a farewell to their dancing friends before making their way back to the auditorium to watch the other dances.

The group saw a ridiculous amount of performances, some more crazy than others. Some had up to 50 people and others were just solos. There was some with crazy acrobatic tricks and others that were just 3-year-olds running around. Each dance that passed brought them closer and closer to Lance’s number. Hunk kept track of every song, counting down until the one that mattered. 

Lance number started with a man and woman talking. Eventually, the music began to pick up and the two began dancing while tons of people ran onto the stage from the wings, including Lance. Everyone began to hop and swing around just like old-timey dance. Each couple of verses a new character would sing. Eventually, Lance appeared at the front of the stage, singing his own verse. It had something to do with attracting the ladies. Hunk watched as he swung several girls around the stage and made exaggerated gestures.

Lance sang wonderfully. Hunks never heard Lance sing but he was good. He danced better but his singing was wonderful. Hunk wondered if he asked Lance to sing for him, would he blush and refuse? Or would he smile and agree? 

Two short minutes later the group left the spotlight. Hunk feels like he could watch Lance dance for hours. Pidge had turned around in her seat just so she could tease Hunk some more with her wiggly eyebrows. Hunk ignored her. Soon adjudication would start.

Lance explained to Hunk earlier that adjudication was the competitive part of dance competitions. All the dancers that performed since the last adjudication would make a big circle on stage. The judge would then come up on stage and give general corrections. Then everyone would get a pin rated from bronze to high gold. Though Lance mentioned diamond, which was very hard to get. Then they were given a rank of first to third. Hunk wondered how they would fare. 

A few songs later and the dancers began walking out on stage with their arms behind their backs and chests puffed out. Each dancer came on stage hoping for the best, waiting for the judge to finish up her notes. It seemed like a ridiculous amount of silence before everyone applauded as a figure walked from the back of the audience up onto the stage. The judge had made her decisions. 

Adjudication was long, everyone had corrections and everyone got pins. Then Lance’s and Allura’s ballet came up. The two stepped forward, singling themselves out. They both had impassive faces, not letting their emotions show. The crowd cheered as the judge gave them a high gold. Allura and Lance smiled before curtsying and then stepping back into the circle of dancers. More numbers took their turn before Lance’s musical theatre group stepped forward. They received high silver. The judge began listing off the rankings.

“Third place goes to… Let it Roll!” she announced and a hip-hop group that Hunk barely remembered stepped forward to bow. She smiled at the group before flipping one of her pages,

“Second in the category goes to Allura and Lance!” Hunk applauded as loud as he could as the two stepped forward to accept their ranking. After that, she announced first place, which was the amazing pointѐ solo. Then the Judge asked the audience to congratulate the dancers while they all bowed and began leaving the spotlight. 

Hunk left the theatre behind Shiro and Camilia. Everyone was leaving all at the same time so it was squishy and it made Hunk uncomfortable but he tried to focus on keeping Pidge from being squashed. Hunk glanced to his left to see a very pissed off Keith trying not to punch anyone. Eventually, they did make it into the foyer where they waited for their dancing friends. 

A sea of people parted around them, anxious to get out of the crowded area. It took several minutes, which Pidge filled with a very educational explanation of dance physics before Lance and Allura showed up.

Behind each of them was a familiar huge black bag that Hunk saw just about every dancer pull around with them. Allura still had a ballet bun in her hair and Hunk thought he could still see some mascara clinging to Lance’s eyelashes, but otherwise, they were out of there dance attire. Both of them were wearing baggy shirts and sweatpants, which seemed to be the classic post dance outfit as Hunk saw lots of dancers wearing similar clothes. 

Hunk couldn’t help but be amused when he watched the two try and maneuver their bags over to the group without rolling over any toes of the crowd. After some very interesting strategies, they did make it over to them.

“Ahhhh,” sighed Lance at his approach, “the sweet sweet absence of sequins scraping against my skin!” He stretched his arms above him. Allura laughed before Shiro approached and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Camillia had found her way to Lance’s side and threw an arm around his shoulder. She was congratulating him; Hunk figured he ought to do that too. So he approached,

“Lance, you were amazing,” Lance looked at Hunk with a grateful gaze. Then, he smiled at Hunk with a strange amount of fondness.

“Thanks, Hunk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I am so so sorry for going like MIA for 4 months. But I am super busy. If your interested in knowing whats been going on with me feel free to keep on reading. So from March to May, I had dance competitions every other weekend, which gets very overwhelming very fast. Then June was consumed by Finals, plus I had to take several courses in order to be qualified for my job this summer! Which leads me to the next busy thing is that I have a Summer Job! Which I work a lot. So I'm hoping to get back on schedule once school starts again. Sorry for the long wait and this chapter isn't all that exciting but I promise there's more to come! And as always special thanks to my beta reader Pythagorean_Pineapples!


	8. Photos and Glow Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk learns a little bit more about Lance's home life

"Where are all the things that you have toiled all your life for?"  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been about a week since the dance competition and Hunk was living the life. Every morning he got to wake up and talk to the pretty boy next door; it's amazing how one person's presence can affect your mood so much. However, that morning when Hunk peeked out his window, his friend's curtains were closed. 

He must not have much school work today.  
Since Lance was homeschooled he was able to sleep in a lot more than your average teenager. So Hunk shrugged and brushed his teeth.

 

About halfway through first-period Hunk felt a little buzz in his pocket. He looked up at the teacher who was busy doing something on their computer while the class worked on worksheets. Seeing his opportunity Hunk carefully pulled his phone from his pocket and tucked it under his desk.

Lance: Yo  
Hunk smiled at the message. Even if it was a simple thing it was nice to know people were thinking of you.  
Hunk: Hi, slept in this morning?  
Lance: A queen needs his beauty sleep (♡ >ω< ♡)  
Lance: Shouldn't you be in class right now? Are you texting me in class! Hunk you're so bad (゜ロ゜)  
Hunk: what does that face even mean? And you would text too if your classes were this boring  
"Garret! Off your phone!" The teacher suddenly blared, apparently taking a break to scan his class and catching Hunk in the act.

"S-sorry Mr. Nelson!" Hunk scrambled to put his phone away under the amused gazes of his classmates. They were all staring at him and the reproachful tone in his teacher's voice made Hunk's stomach scrunch up, leaving this tight feeling in his belly. Hunk stared down at his paper for the express purpose of looking like he was working while he tried to calm down. 

He didn't move an inch other than the slight shaking of his hands, which Hunk knew wouldn't allow him to write a word, even if he wanted. There was an oppressive itch in his mouth and he rushed to scrape the sensation off his tongue against his teeth. He knew he was panicking over nothing but he couldn't help the spiraling thoughts and quickly tried to use some slow breathing exercises his tinā had taught him.

Lance: Hunk?  
Lance: Huuuuuuuuuuuuuunk  
Lance: Did you get caught? (ಡ艸ಡ)  
Lance: Well, have a good day at school bud 

Hunk smiled a little, knowing that Lance was thinking of him.

 

When he got home that afternoon he was once again dragged into his mom's art room for a showcase. Once she finally let him go, he noticed another text from Lance, sent 5 minutes ago.

Lance: You're in Bio right?!  
Lance: omg I need help I have no idea what I'm doing ╥﹏╥  
Hunk: Ha ha, you want me to come over and I could maybe help you out?  
Lance: No way really!? I thought I'd just send you a picture but if you don't mind that'd be fantastic!  
Hunk: omw

Hunk said a quick goodbye to his mom before taking the short trek to the Mcclain's. When he skipped up the grey steps and rang the doorbell a little boy opened the door. Hunk took a second to place him and vaguely remembered meeting him when he brought snickerdoodles over. Lucas, Lance's 9-year-old brother. Even though he had never talked to him he felt as though he had a pretty good understanding of the kid, as Lance would talk endlessly about the trouble him and Matias would get into. 

"Hi," Lucas greeted from the doorway, looking warily at the huge guy who stood on his porch. Hunk had always gotten those wary stares before, from children and adults alike. People tended to be cautious around someone as big as him, however, once they met him they realized their mistake, and knew how much of a sweetheart he could be.

"Hey, I'm Hunk. I'm your big brother's friend. Is he around?" Hunk asked, giving the kid an out. He always used to be terrified of answering the door or even the phone when he was younger. It was always nice to pass the responsibility onto someone else.

Lucas nodded and led Hunk into the house. He walked past the living room and began his way up the stairs, presumably to Lance's room. Hunk noted a little Sofia lying down on the carpet scribbling in a book and Matias furiously typing into a calculator and writing stuff down at the kitchen table. Lance had mentioned that his whole family was homeschooled and Hunk had the stray thought, why? 

Hunk followed Lucas up the steps. He had never been upstairs or in Lance's room and he wondered if this was a step in a good direction. 

The hallway was lined with doors all decorated to express their owners. There were six doors, one was comically split right in the middle and was half decorated in colorful My Little Pony stickers and half decorated in Batman merchandise. Signs on the top proved to show that Lucas and Sofia shared a bedroom. Directly across from them was a door covered in caution tape, photos, and a big warning sign that said: "No Girls Allowed". This door was labeled with a hand-drawn sign that said "Lance & Matias". The only other decorated doors were two farther down the hall, but they were much more minimalistic. Each had a sign with either the name "Camilia" or "Nicole". Nicole chose to tape a photo of her with an arm around a girl right under her name. Camilia had pasted a couple cutesy animal stickers randomly on her door. It might've been childish but Hunk though it was kind of endearing. 

Lucas pointed at Lance's door before retreating back downstairs without a word. Hunk didn't think Lucas was a shy boy from the stories Lance told, but he figured the little bit of language barrier might've thrown him off. Lance had mentioned once that they rarely spoke English in their house and because they were homeschooled they didn't get much exposure to English at all. So lots of times it took quite a few years before they were decent at the language. 

Hunk took a moment to look at the photos haphazardly taped to the door before entering. The first one that caught his eye was a family photo right in the middle of the door. Mrs. McClain was front and center, and in her arms was a baby, presumable Sofia. On either side of Mrs. Mcclain stood a preteen Nicole and Camilia. Nicole looked to be about 15 and she was holding the hand of a toddler Lucas. Beside Camilia stood a preteen Lance and in front of him a little version of Matias. 

Underneath that photo was another family photo, this one taken even earlier. Mrs. Mcclain was center again but she was sitting, in front of her sat two little girls and a little boy who was holding a baby: Nicole, Camilia, Lance and Matias, Hunk had figured.

Those pictures seemed to be the centerpiece and around them scattered around were less professional photos. Hunk saw one of an angry Matias reaching towards the camera, one of Lance with mud all over his face and a huge smile, one was a birthday photo of a baby Lucas staring at his cake, he saw one of Sofia, Camilia, and Nicole all sitting in a circle doing makeovers. There were many others and Hunk smiled at the memories they portrayed. 

Hunk wondered what it was like to have siblings. 

He finally knocked gently on the door, careful to not wreck the decorations. "Come in!" He heard from inside so he finally opened up the door separating him from Lance. 

If Hunk had thought that the door had a lot of memories, it was nothing compared to Lance's room. More photos were taped onto the walls EVERYWHERE, and one particular one of Lance covered in a green face mask made him grin. Among them were crayon scribbled artwork and even some nice looking pencil sketches. There were glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling and Hunk felt something warm inside. He had those stars too but took them down when he got older. There were trophies and certificates littered about. 

Lance was sitting at a desk, textbook out in front of him. He was staring at Hunk as he explored the expanse of his bedroom.

"Hey, sorry it's kind of a mess," Lance saw Hunk staring at the picture of him in a face mask, "Ha, Camilia made me wear it; she swore I'd never be the same again. She was right of course, now I can't handle not having a skincare routine, and me and her wear masks together at least twice a week." He explained, laughing at the memory. Hunk nodded, thinking it was nice that Lance didn't care about being judged for liking something ‘girly'. 

 

Hunk turned to get a good look at one of the sketches up on the wall, it was of a person looking at the front but facing the side, she looked surprised as if she hadn't expected the viewer to be looking at her. "Did you draw this?" Hunk asked, finally facing Lance,

"Oh god no, I could only wish. No that's Matias' handiwork. He mostly draws with pencil but I swear he's gonna make a career out of it," Lance smiled wistfully, knowing his brother was amazing. Hunk had the thought of asking his mom if maybe she wanted to teach Matias some art stuff. Then again she paints, and he draws, so maybe there wouldn't be a point, but Matias might still find it fun. Before he could continue that thought Lance interrupted with,

"Well, this biology isn't going to do itself…unfortunately." 

"Haha, let's see what you've got."

 

"…and that's how bacteria denitrify nitrates back into the atmosphere so the cycle can repeat," Hunk finished. They'd been at it for a few hours already and they were finally seeing the end of Lance's endless worksheet. Luckily they had the same curriculum so Hunk knew what Lance was learning. It actually helped him review. Maybe they'd have to do homework together more often?

Lance made a huge sigh and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. School was never fun, homeschooled or not. "What time is it?" He asked, knowing he had to make supper at some point since everyone else was working. 

"5:08, did you want to stop here?" Hunk knew working for hours on end could be exhausting. He lay back on Lance's bed where he had set up at the beginning of their session. Lance made an agreeing noise but other than that made no movement. 

Hunk turned his head to look at the photos some more, there was so many he doubted he'd ever see them all. He saw lots of funny ones of the siblings and lots of Mrs.Mcclain. He even saw one of her holding a baby Lance. There was one of her and her kids playing in a park. One of her and Nicole playing chess. 

Where was dad?

"He left us a long time ago," Lance said out of nowhere. Hunk looked horrified and covered his mouth, not realizing he had said that insensitive thought out loud. Lance finally opened his eyes to look at Hunk. Seeing his face, he laughed, "It's fine, it's a legitimate question. When mom first got pregnant with Lucas, before we even knew she was pregnant, he ran off and never came back. Only God knows where he is now. Whatever he can stay faaaaaaar away for all I care." Lance giggled, trying to play off the huge amount of information he just gave away.

"Oh, Lance…wait but Sofia…?" Hunk questioned. Logically he probably should have just left it but if Lance's dad left when Lucas was conceived how was Sofia born?  
"Adopted. Well kind of. She was actually my aunt's, she didn't want to keep her and was going to give her up but mom told her she'd take custody and raise Sofia as her own. She has always been her daughter and our sister regardless," Lance explained, his voice getting a slight edge to it that Hunk had never heard before. He sounded angry. That wasn't right, Lance was supposed to smile and be happy. Anger didn't look good on him. Hunk felt that it was only fair to return the show of trust,

"That sounds kind of familiar. I was born in Samoan to my birth parents: my tinā's sister and her husband. There was an insane tropical storm and our house collapsed. Baby me was pulled from the wreckage and my tinā raised me ever since," Hunk had a wistful smile on his face, thinking of the dedication and family loyalty his tinā had. Lance had turned towards him during his story and was now sporting a small smile. He opened his mouth to comment something when a little girl clad in pajamas walked into the room.  
She looked nervously at Hunk before speaking to her older brother. Lance replied before standing up and picking his sister up. 

"She says she's hungry. I guess that means supper time," Lance explained, smiling at Hunk, reluctant to let him leave right after their bonding moment, "Hey, do you want to stay for supper?"  
Hunk grinned, he didn't want to leave so soon either, "I'd love to, just let me send a quick text to my moms."

When the three went back downstairs they were greeted with screaming Spanish. Turning to the source showed Matias and Lucas playing Wii Sports, and apparently getting way too competitive. Lance didn't seem too concerned though as he laughed and shouted something at them. Whatever he said made them pause to reply before they went back to their game, somewhat calmer now. 

"Lucas wants chicken and Matias wants pizza," Lance explained for Hunk's sake before turning to the little girl in his arms and presumably asking her the same question. "Alright, pizza it is," Lance decided as he set Sofia down, who immediately ran to see what her brothers were doing. 

Lance looked at Hunk, seeing him trying to figure out what he should do, "You any good at Wii sports?" he asked.

"Um, I've never played before," Hunk replied. Being he didn't have any siblings, he had no one to play with, so there wasn't much point in buying a Wii. Matias must have heard him, as there was a scandalized gasp from the kid,

"You. Have. Never. Played. Wii. SPORTS!?!" He yelled at Hunk before going on a barely audible ramble while dragging him into the living room. Lance just laughed and waved at him, disappearing into the kitchen. 

Before Hunk knew it Matias had shoved a white remote into his hand and began to explain the different games. Matias decided that table tennis was a good place to start and they began a match, while Lucas and Sofia watched from the couch. Hunk tried his best, he really did, but Matias absolutely creamed him.   
"That's ok Hunk. You're a noob, you can't beat a pro," Matias said with his heavy accent. Hunk wasn't certain if it was supposed to be encouraging or teasing but Hunk smiled back regardless. Matias passed the remote to Lucas, who picked cow racing, and Hunk was promptly destroyed in that much to Lucas' delight.

Even Sofia won against him in fishing. Hunk thought it was just because he didn't understand that he had to be still for the fish to bite, but Matias took great joy in teasing him about losing to a five-year-old.   
They had been at it for a while now, rotating through the four of them, Matias occasionally playing translator. Hunk had finally figured out the games and even won a couple (the fishing one was his favorite). Then Lance shouted Spanish from the kitchen. Everyone began to get up but when Matias saw Hunks confused look he explained,

"Sorry, Lance said that we can make our pizzas now." Hunk wasn't sure what ‘making pizzas' meant since clearly, Lance had been doing that, but he followed into the kitchen regardless. 

Once there Hunk saw a spread of different condiments all in a line. There were little mini pizzas next to a pot of tomato sauce. After that, the spread included several types of meat, cheese, lettuce, olives, and much more. Hunk saw the kids piling the toppings onto their own personal pizzas. 

Lance came up to Hunk and gave him a look, "Glad to see you're still alive after being subjected to Matias' torture via Wii Sports." Hunk laughed,

"It was actually really fun, even if I lost most of the time." Lance giggled and the two began to make their own pizza. In the background, Hunk heard the three kids arguing passionately in Spanish. Lance had just laughed then solved whatever problem they were having once he finished with his pizza. After all the pizzas had been placed onto a cookie sheet Lance put them in the oven and set a timer. Then he made 3 more and put them on another sheet and added that to the oven.

"Alright, how about I reclaim myself as the Wii Sports champion until supper is ready," Lance challenged, repeating himself in Spanish as well. And with that the five of them rushed back into the living room, hoping to get first dibs.

After Hunk lost against each Mcclain at least 5 times the door opened and a voice sang out, slowly approaching the living room. Nicole appeared from around the corner and Sofia ran at her demanding to be picked up. 

"Oh, Hey Hunk. It's been a while," She greeted him as she approached the kitchen. She peeked her head into the room to see what was in the oven. 

"Hey, Nicole. You look well," Hunk replied, hoping to be polite. Sofia seemed to be talking Nicole's ear off, probably about how awful Hunk is at Wii Sports when Nicole entered the living room. She smiled at Hunk and set Sofia down,

"Thanks, Hunk, you're so sweet." She gave Lance a look and then said something in the language that Hunk was beginning to consider learning at this point, and Lance's whole face turned pink before he threw the remote at her and said something back. Matias and Lucas were dying of laughter and Hunk was beginning to feel left out. 

Nicole ended up joining their little tournament, and she showed no mercy. She was absolutely bomb at baseball. Eventually, the door opened again to reveal Camilia. When she entered she immediately thanked Lance,

"Yessssss, baby bro for the win! I love pizza," she came over and gave Lance a kiss on the cheek.  
"Oh my god you're literally only a year older than me, stop calling me baby bro," Lance groaned and with that, there was another addition to the people who could destroy Hunk at this godforsaken game. 

The oven had dinged and Lance had passed his remote to Sofia as he went to go pull the pizzas out. Mrs. Mcclain would be home soon so they would wait for her before eating. Matias and Lucas left the couch to help set the table. Meanwhile, Hunk was being more of a burden than a help in the tank game.

It wasn't long before Mrs. Mcclain entered the house and seeing that supper was done she decided it was her turn to beat Hunk at video games. Of course, she did, at shooting of course. She only got to play one game though before Lance called everyone to come eat.

Everyone sat down at the large table and began to put their respective pizzas on their plates. "So Hunk, Lucas said you've been here a while? What were you doing?" Camilia asked him, raising an eyebrow. Hunk thought that was a strange question but answered regardless,

"Helping Lance with homework." Nicole laughed and made a jab at Lance's intelligence. The dinner continued in a similar fashion with casual small talk. Once everyone was finished Matias and Camilia got to dishes, while Lance walked Hunk to the door.

"Thanks for coming, I had fun, homework or not," Lance told him in the entrance, giving him a kind smile.

"Yeah, I did too. Wii Sports is a brutal, but fun game," The two laughed, Lance wondered if he could ever convince Hunk to play another game with his family ever again. 

"Hey, should we trade songs again?" Lance suggested, thinking they haven't done that in a while.   
"Oh yeah! Definitely. For categories, we could do…maybe… in languages other than English?" Hunk offered, he always listened to foreign music and he figured Lance probably had some favorite Spanish songs. 

"Oh! Yes! Mines Gasolina by Daddy Yankee," Lance said and internally Hunk was thinking Daddy? Seriously? , but externally he just nodded and replied,

"Mines Derniѐre Danse by Indila," Lance smiled and nodded, already making a note in his phone.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" He asked.

"Definitely."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this is so late, I had it done a while ago but for some reason, my beta never replied to my email? So this chapter is unbeta'd. I really like this chapter and I hope you do too. ;)


	9. Lance Mows The Lawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new challenger approaches,  
> What a beautiful jerk!

“Go ahead and laugh, even if it hurts. Go ahead and pull, the, pin.”  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hunk swiftly took the cookies out of the bakery oven, Coran had requested 2 new batches of pumpkin cookies for an order later that day, and Hunk was the pumpkin expert. Today he had the pleasure of working with Rax, Shay’s brother, but the two of them couldn’t be more different. Where Shay was kind and soft, Rax was rude and abrasive. He could be tolerable, but for someone as sensitive as Hunk, he was hard to get along with. The two always ended up ignoring each other as much as possible. 

Hunk wasted no time in wrapping up the pumpkin cookies in a decorative box and putting them away for pick up. He was just in time to assist a couple customers who just walked in. Rax and Hunk had both agreed that if possible, Hunk should handle the customer service; some people didn’t take Rax’s attitude very well.

“Hi! Welcome to Altea Bakery, how can I help you?” Hunk greeted the two patrons. They were a little odd, expressing themselves outside of the status quo, which Hunk could appreciate. The guy had tanned skin and was incredibly tall but skinny. He had extremely long white hair that was up in a ponytail and yet still reached his lower back. The girl that was with him had very short hair that was dyed purple, shaved on one side and combed over. She had several piercings and wore a black leather jacket that contrasted her lighter skin. 

The two highly attractive people continued on to order some coffee and cake that Rax began to prepare behind Hunk. “Could I get a name for your order?” He asked.  
“Lotor,” the man replied, too absorbed in picking at his nails to spare Hunk a look. 

“Thank you,” Hunk offered with a smile as the two sat down at a table to wait for their order. Something about those two rubbed Hunk the wrong way. Hunk didn’t like to judge people without knowing anything about them, but he couldn’t help the heavy feeling in his gut. 

Rax brought the food out to their table with barely acceptable manners, but they were good enough, or so Hunk thought, because as he turned to leave Lotor suddenly whipped his head around to glare at Rax.

“Hey, what’s your problem!” Lotor fired at the boy, with anger in his posture. Hunk thought that the confrontation was completely unnecessary. Did this guy expect to be treated like royalty everywhere he went? 

“Huh?!” Rax replied, turning around to face the beautiful jerk. Rax didn’t see anything wrong with his performance of course, and Hunk had no doubt he was about to start getting defensive. He entertained the idea of calling Coran, as there was a very good chance things would start getting violent if Hunk was reading the situation right. Hunk didn’t handle violence well. Coran, of course, was not in the building today and it’d be unlikely he’d make it here before anything happened. 

“I said, what’s with the attitude?! Do you treat all your valuable customers like that?” Lotor returned, standing up now to face Rax eye to eye. The girl, on the other hand, didn’t seem too bothered as she took a sip of her coffee and looked at something on her phone. Was this a common occurrence for her?

Rax started to get into Lotor’s space, grabbing the front of his shirt he said, “What? Do you think people should worship the ground you walk on, you entitled prick!? I didn’t even do anything; you're just trying to pick a fight.” That struck a chord, as Lotor’s face lit up red and the girl finally looked up from her phone. Hunk figured he better get in between the two before Rax had to deal with an assault charge. 

“I’ve had a real shitty day and it’s getting worse by the minute so don’t think I won't hesitate to have this place shut down! All it would take is a phone call to my dad and he can have your bakery torn to the gro-” Hunk pushed his way in between the two, cutting Lotor’s threat off. He gave a firm push to each of their chests, separating them. He looked right into Lotor’s eyes and gave a glare,

“I think you should leave. We don’t tolerate violence in the building. If you must, you may leave a review on our website. Feel free to pack your food up and bring it out with you.” Lotor gave a glare and a little pushback at Hunk, but after he didn’t budge he scoffed and stepped back,

“C’mon Axca, let's blow this joint,” he dramatically flipped his hair as he turned around and strode out the door with his companion on his heels. Hunk let out a big sigh and clutched the front of his shirt, willing his heart to slow down. Hunk really didn’t think he could handle an anxiety attack right now, but he’d definitely have one if he didn’t calm down. His only saving grace was that he’s had experience with dealing with his anxiety, and he knew some tricks that helped him. 

He looked up to see Rax looking concerned, Hunk had the passing thought that it was a weird look for him. “Do you want me to call Coran?” Rax asked in an uncharacteristically soft voice as Hunk began to straighten. 

“No that’s okay, I’m just going to lie down in the break room,” Hunk walked past Rax towards the staff area, but before he could disappear he heard a quiet “Hunk” from behind him. He turned around to see Rax looking at him guiltily,

“I-I’m sorry, and…and thank you.” Hunk saw the vulnerable look on Rax’s face and nodded, accepting his apology.   
Maybe Hunk could learn to understand Rax.

 

Hunk later called Coran and he came to take Hunk off so he could go home. Everyday Hunk walked home, it was relaxing for him. Of course, it didn’t hurt that every time he walked home from work he went past Lance’s house. 

Hunk was feeling rather drained from his earlier confrontation and he was looking forward to curling up in his bed and watch some random comedy show. Of course, then he saw Lance, mowing his front lawn. Hunk was immediately happier, knowing he could cheer himself up by talking with Lance. So, Hunk walked up to Lance, waving and yelling his name.

“Oh, Hunk! Hey buddy, how’s it hanging?” Lance said, turning to face Hunk. Now that he turned Lance’s face was revealed to Hunk to be sporting a large bruise. The majority of Lance’s left cheek was covered in purple and blue. Hunk flinched, thinking about the pain Lance had to have gone through to get such a nasty bruise,

“Lance! Are you okay? What happened to your face?!” Hunk exclaimed, wondering how on earth Lance got so injured. The only thing he could think of was if someone got violent, but Hunk didn’t know anyone in Lance’s life that would ever hurt him. Lance, trying to ignore Hunk’s panic, rubbed the back of his neck and laughed sheepishly,

“Ah, it was just a revengeful ex. Didn’t take ‘no’ too well you know?” Hunk didn’t like the way Lance was belittling this. Someone attacked Lance, and that wasn’t okay in Hunks books. He wondered if Lance thought that it was okay? 

“…Lance, that’s awful. Do you want to talk about it?” Hunk asked, knowing that Lance probably needed to talk about this problematic ex. Hunk knew all about bottling up your feelings, it’s never a good thing. Lance just laughed though,

“It’s fine, I’m okay, he doesn’t even throw that hard of a punch! Honestly, you’re making this a bigger deal than it is.” Hunk thought there was a lot to digest in that sentence, first of all: HE, not she. Second: Lance didn’t think this situation was a problem. 

“Lance, this is a big deal. Someone hitting you should never not be an issue. If you’re really not that bothered than fine, but if your hiding how you feel, I’d really encourage you to talk to someone, if not to me than someone else. Even if this seems like not a big deal, if you don’t deal with it now it can snowball into a more difficult issue,” Hunk offered seriously, he looked after his friends, whether that be mentally or physically. His therapist at least taught him enough to know a little bit about these things. Lance looked dumbly at his big friend. Hunk stared back, trying to convey how concerned he was and show that he was willing to listen. 

Lance broke the eye contact first, scoffing to the side, lawnmower long forgotten, “Okay, you got me. Let’s go sit down and I can tell you the whole story,” Lance said, pointing at a swinging bench that was placed against his house. Lance quickly put away the mower before leading Hunk to the bench. They sat there in silence for a minute; Hunk figured Lance was probably trying to think of the best way to start his tale. Just as Hunk was about to send him a line Lance began,

“I was dating this guy, Lotor,” Hunk flinched at the familiar name but Lance was too absorbed in his shoes to notice, “We dated for about a year and at first he was really nice, but as we got more comfortable around each other I began to notice things.

Lotor was nice most of the time but he had a temper. If he was really mad he’d punch or kick the walls. He’d scream and yell and it’d honestly scare me a little bit. And he was so jealous, it got worse with time but I think he was beginning to get a vendetta against Allura. Thought I was gonna run away with her or something I guess.” Here Lance paused, looking out at a tree while the two began to swing. Hunk wished he knew what was happening in his brain. There was an extended pause before Lance took a big sigh and continued, 

“I knew the signs, I’m not stupid. If I continued to be with Lotor he was going to someday get tired of punching walls and move on to something that would flinch,” Lance grimaced at that line of thought and Hunk couldn’t blame him. A year was a long time to know someone only to find out they had an ugly side of them. “Lotor’s dad was abusive towards him too, so while I felt bad, I also knew that he was raised to choose violence first you know? So I decided I had to leave before it was too late.

I broke up with him about a week ago, over the phone, I-I was too scared to do it in person. I didn’t want him to hurt me,” Lance laughed at himself, wiping away a tear casually, “ I guess that was pretty pointless though because earlier today he knocked on my door just so he could punch me and swear in my face,” Lance used the collar of his shirt to wipe the slowly growing tears from his face. “Fuck, Hunk, I was so scared, but I was watching after my little siblings and I could tell they were even more scared. All the shouting and screaming really stressed them out. After he left, when they saw my face, they started panicking. I pretended to be alright, I guess so that they would calm down, I didn’t want them to be scared,” Lance was doing this strange thing where he smiled and laughed while simultaneously crying and whimpering, Hunk thought it was heartbreaking. Lance had a weird way of showing vulnerability. Hunk had a passing concern, wondering how often Lance let himself be vulnerable. “God, Hunk what if he comes back? I…I don’t know if I could handle it.” Lance dropped his head in his hands, curling in on himself. He hid his face knowing he probably looked gross, but Hunk didn’t care. He wasted no time in pulling Lance into a side hug. 

Hunk gently rubbed Lance’s back, his own problems long gone from his mind. Lance quietly sobbed into Hunk’s hold. He let him cry into his hands for as long as he liked, till eventually, his sobs died down. Hunk heard a sniffle or two before Lance finally raised his head. His face was red and his eyes looked sore. His nose was runny and his cheeks were wet but it didn’t matter to Hunk. People who cried beautifully didn’t exist, it was just some urban legend romance novels spread around to sound poetic or whatever. “Feel better?” Hunk asked, hoping to get Lance’s mind away from the breakdown he just had.

“Y-yeah, I feel…gross…but lighter…I guess?” Hunk laughed at Lance’s attempt to describe the feeling you get after a good cry. Everyone needed a good cry sometimes.  
Hunk nodded, knowing exactly what Lance was talking about. “Do you want to come in for a drink?” Lance asked hopefully, needing someone he trusted to be with him for a bit, feeling raw and vulnerable after his vent session.

“I’d love too.”

 

Matias had been looking after Sofia and Lucas while Lance was mowing. At Hunks entrance, the three siblings all looked up from their spots on the couch,

“Oh, hey Hunk,” Matias greeted simply, turning back to the show playing on the TV. Lucas smiled and said hi, where Sofia had a huge smile and got up so she could run over to the two teens. At her arrival, she jumped at Hunk forcing him to catch her. She just smiled innocently at him as Lance shook his head,

“I’m making lemonade, do you guys want some?” he asked the room, which was chorused with answers of “si”. So Lance went into the kitchen, beckoning Hunk to follow. So he put down Sofia, who ran back to her brothers, before joining Lance. 

Lance began to get out a big plastic pitcher and a container of lemonade mix. Hunk had a question, a sensitive question. Now was probably his only chance to ask it, “Lance, Lotor was your boyfriend?”

“Uh, yeah,” Lance replied, uncharacteristically insecure before he seemed to check himself and suddenly become defensive, “that’s not an issue right?” 

“No, no of course not. I just wanted to make sure I got my facts straight,” Hunk took a second to chuckle at himself, “So…you’re gay then?” 

“No, bisexual actually,” was Lance’s reply, dropping his aggression at Hunks reassurance. Hunk nodded and gave an “Okay” before Lance decided it was time for a topic change,

“So, time for new song recommendations?” Lance asked, hoping to get rid of the awkward air the boys ended up in. After Hunks affirmative Lance suggested, “how about classical songs? Do you listen to any classical?” 

“Oh, I listen to some classical. Not a lot but I do enjoy it. I think my choice would be…okay don’t laugh it’s such a basic choice, but I really enjoy Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Movement one. I find it relaxing,” Hunk replied, he genuinely liked all of the Moonlight Sonata but there was just something about the first movement that really stuck with him.  
“Hey! I did a ballet dance to that before, a couple years ago now I think. It was really nice. My recommendation is gonna be Dmitri Shostakovich’s Waltz No.2. I dunno why really but It just makes me wanna dance!” Lance laughed before adding, “Hey do you want to hear a good classical music factoid?” After Hunk agreed Lance snickered before continuing,

“So Mozart, the brat, wrote a song called “Leck Mich Im Arsch. Which translated to – kids cover your ears – Lick Me in the Ass,” Lance suddenly burst out laughing, rambling about how Mozart was such a meme. 

Lance did eventually get around to serving lemonade and the teens joined the kids in the living room to watch Sponge Bob. Which, let it be known, Hunk had no idea still aired. All was pretty peaceful, as Sofia doodled on the floor, until the arrival of a new McClain. Nicole walked through the door and greeted,

“Hey, guys! Oh, and Hunk.” Then when Lance turned to greet her and she suddenly screamed, “Lance!” she vaulted over the couch and cradled Lance's chin in her hands so she could get a good look at his bruised cheek, “What happened to your face!” Lance, of course, tried to lean away, but Hunk could see Nicole’s fingers tighten, keeping him in place.

“I’m fine,” Lance replied, avoiding her eyes. Nicole frowned at Lance’s reluctance to tell her what happened. Matias had had enough and decided to bluntly pipe in, 

“Lotor came here so he could punch Lance.” Nicole’s head snapped back towards Lance, who was beginning to look like he’d rather be somewhere else. 

“HE DID WHAT?!” was her first reaction, gaining concerned looks from Lucas and Sofia. Of course, after she noticed Lance sinking even farther at the sound of her raised voice, she immediately switched gears, “oh…Lance…”

Lance smiled up at his sister, “It’s alright, he throws a weak punch anyways,” the two of them laughed over the sound of the door opening again. Camilia stepped into her home only to see her little brother and older sister sitting on the floor embracing,

“What’s going on?” Suddenly all eyes were on her, not really noticing her entrance. Of course, that was when she noticed the black and blue covering Lance’s face. Suddenly she was shouting in Spanish, a language which Hunk still didn’t know. Of course, Nicole replied in Spanish, leaving Hunk behind. There was some conversation before Camilia started yelling angrily and marching around the room like she wanted to hit something. Lance and Nicole looked at her like they were a little scared of her, Hunk couldn’t blame them, she looked absolutely livid. 

Sofia ended up interrupting Camilia’s wrath with a tap on Lance’s knee. She held up whatever she had been drawing earlier. It was a card, on it she had drawn Lance with a bandage on his face surrounded by his family hugging him. It was accompanied by more Spanish, Hunk really needed to ask Lance for some lessons. The card was the straw that broke the camel’s back as Lance began to cry. Pulling his little sister into a hug he thanked her. Eventually, the rest of his siblings joined the hug and Hunk began to feel like he was imposing. 

Hunk still thought it was touching.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UUUUUUUggh I can't believe I haven't updated this in like a month. I've actually had this chapter done for a couple of weeks now but my beta has seemingly dropped off the face of the earth? I was hoping she'd show up again and then I just got lazy. So yeah I'm looking for a beta reader, let me know if you're interested. It doesn't matter if you're not that good or whatever, any help is appreciated. Well until then no beta reader, we die like men. As soon as I post this I'm gonna start chapter 10 so that should be up sooner rather than later. Bye for now!


	10. Stargaze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you can trust me  
> I know

"Count stacks of the routine lies, funny how easy you could see my blindsides, still the same songs with the same old beats,"  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hunk aggressively mashed the buttons on his Xbox remote, praying to any god out there to just let him beat Pidge, just once, that's all he was asking. He and Pidge had been playing PUBG for hours, and Pidge was a god damn beast. The little green gremlin had asked Hunk to come over for a good ole session of video games at her house after school. They had been good friends for so long, and with all the things going on in Hunks life right now, he was happy to have some fun with his best friend for a while.

"So how are things with Lance?" she asked, continuing her merciless assault on some random group of players. It's been a few months now since Lance moved in, and he and Hunk were getting to be good friends. They did visit each other’s house often enough, and they nearly had a window chat every day, trading songs between the two of them.

"It's good I guess...we have fun..." was Hunks reply. He didn't want to seem too excited to be talking about Lance. Pidge was always very perceptive and he didn't want her to find out about his little crush on Lance. If she did then he'd surely be teased.

"Oh come on Hunk, you should know by now you can never lie to me," Okay, well, apparently it was already too late for that, "You have a crush on Lance, don't you? Tell your best friend all about it, I wanna hear everything," Pidge encouraged, Hunk wasn't sure if her intentions were to get blackmail on him or what, but he couldn't deny the desire to vent out his guts to someone he trusted. Even if Pidge pretended to be some maniacal monster, Hunk knew she'd never do anything to him with ill intent.

"I don't know if crush is the right word, to be honest, I don't like- love him or anything that intense. I just, feel like I could, you know? Wait, that doesn't make any sense," Hunk shook his head, having a hard time trying to explain his feelings.

"No no no, I get it. You see him as a potential partner. You don't KNOW that you'll get together but you feel like you could," was Pidges response. She finally died on her game and decided to turn off the Xbox, in return for showing her friend her full attention on his issues.

"Yeah, yeah I guess that's how it is. I just kind of get excited when I know I get to see him, like I just get strangely happy. And I think I could be happy in a relationship with him. But, my main issue is that I just don't know how. I've never been in a relationship before Pidge, I don't know how to make this work?" Hunk leaned back on the couch, dropping his head over the back, closing his eyes with a big sigh. 

Pidge shook her head at his distress and offered, "Well.. do you even know if he's into guys? He might not be, you have to remember that." 

Hunk nodded his head, feeling himself get worked up over the stressful issue in front of him. He rubbed his face before turning to meet his friend's eyes, "Yeah, last week, I was over at his house and he told me about his ex-boyfriend. When I asked him about his sexuality, he told me he was bi," Pidge nodded in understanding as she was pretty sure Lance wasn't straight, her gaydar was definitely one of the best. The only issue was how Hunk responded. She had a feeling he forgot something very important.

"Hunk, did you tell Lance, your sexuality?" Pidge could tell the moment she asked that the answer was no. Hunk looks a little confused, probably not understanding the reason why that was important to tell Lance. Of course, he wouldn't understand, but that was why she was here.

"Pidge I don't even like have a sexuality, I don't really have a label? Besides, there wasn't a good place to insert it into the conversation," Hunk confirmed her suspicions. The conversation briefly brought Pidge back to the time when the two friends first came out to each other. Pidge had actually gone first, telling Hunk she was Aroace. She had been kind of nervous and she was ready to explain to him what that meant, but he just nodded. Hunk said he wasn't all that surprised and had told her that he did have significant knowledge of the LGBTQ+ community. When Pidge had asked why he bothered to learn anything he had told her he was queer, he knew he wasn't straight so he tried to find a label, but he never felt comfortable with any of them so he just started calling himself queer. The two of them had become each other's biggest supporters, as they were the first people they came out to. Eventually, they encouraged each other to come out to their parents and their friends, even learning about Keith’s gay status. All of a sudden Pidge remembered what the issue at hand was: Hunk didn't tell Lance he was queer.

"Hunk! No- if Lance doesn't know you like boys, he's gonna assume you like girls and that he's not a contender nor any chance you had with him will be shattered! Especially since he gave you an opportunity to tell him. Since you didn't say anything, you basically straight out told him you're straight!" 

That seemed to do it as Hunk's face suddenly fell, realizing the consequences of his mistake.

"Oh- Oh god, Pidge what do I do? I really want to try and have something with Lance but I've already ruined it, god, I'm so stupid," He panicked, putting his head in his hands, feeling self-deprecating at his own lack of social ability. Pidge suddenly grabbed his face and yanked him up to meet her eyes once again,

"Hey, no, none of that, you’re not stupid, and you didn't ruin anything. All you gotta do is tell Lance that you’re queer and you’ll be all good. Then you just gotta do your best to flirt. That's all there is to building a relationship, Hunk. And, lucky for you, I think Lance is going to be willing to take the reins on this one, as he'll probably steer the relationship into the right direction you know? All you gotta do is subtly show him you’re available and interested, then it's up to him to reciprocate, okay?" 

Hunk took in all of Pidges words, trying to think clearly about how this was going to work. He considered all his options before nodding, agreeing with his techy gremlin. Pidge, satisfied by Hunks answer, she also nodded in approval. Her friend may need help from time to time but she swears to any god out there that if Lance screws this up, and hurt her sensitive friend, she will personally skin him alive.

\--------------------

Hunk made supper that night for his moms, which was always appreciated it on their end. He did his homework and got in his pajamas all the while waiting for Lance to scream at him through his window for a chat. They didn't always have nightly talks through the windows of their bedrooms, but Hunk always looked forward to when they did. Hunk, of course, could have instigated the interaction, but he felt anxious at the thought. Lance was always the one to come banging on his window, so what if he didn't like that Hunk started this time? Or worse- what if Lance wasn't available and Matias ended up answering? That'd be so embarrassing.

So, drowning in his disappointment, Hunk went to bed, wondering if Lance would call him in the morning. It was a Friday, but Hunk liked to go to bed at the same time every day. If his sleep schedule got messed up on a Monday, then he felt didn't feel great, and he preferred to avoid that whenever he could.

 

Hunk was dead asleep when he heard something hitting his window, Hunk had always been a heavy sleeper, so he wondered what possibly could have hit his window hard enough to wake him. He settled to go back to bed when he heard it again. Reluctantly, he got out of his bed to investigate.

He opened his curtains to none other than Lance, holding a bag of what looked like little plastic coins. His face lit up when Hunk appeared and he signaled for him to open his window. Hunk briefly looked for damage to his window before opening up, content that his window was fine.

"Finally! Hunk you sleep like a rock, I feel like I've been throwing these things for hours!" Lance exclaimed with a smile, shaking his bag of plastic pieces for emphasis. Hunk took a second to peer at his clock and learn the ungodly hour Lance had woken him up at.

"Lance? What are you doing? It's the middle of the night? And what even are those?" Hunk inquired, woken up by the absurdness of the situation. Lance had been known to surprise him but even this was strange for him. He hoped Lance was alright, there weren't many positive reasons to wake up in the middle of the night.

"Honestly, Hunk, I'm not totally sure," Lance held one of the coins up to his eye, "they may have originally been from a game we bought forever ago but lost? Or maybe one of the kiddies bought them from the dollar store for some reason? Whatever, that's not important! Hunk, I woke you up at this time because me and you are going on an adventure!" Lance beamed, looking way too excited considering the time.

"In the middle of the night? Lance, I'd love to go on an adventure with you but couldn't this be done in the morning?" Hunk reasoned, knowing sometimes Lance's logic could be skewed.

"Well great, glad to know you're on board, so really the time shouldn't matter thaaaaat much if you'd love to go on an adventure with me! And, this adventure requires the cloak of night!" Lance promoted, hopping around and waving his arms sporadically. It seemed kind of childish to Hunk, and he wondered if he got that from having younger siblings, but he wouldn’t know. Hunk never really got to go on adventures since he was a kid, and no matter what anyone says, it's important to be a kid sometimes. And honestly at this point Hunk's sleep schedule was already messed up.

"Okay fine, as long as it's nothing illegal," Hunk conceding. Lance beamed and pumped his arm, letting out a barely audible "Yes!".

"Put on some clothes and meet me on the street! Oh- and bring some snacks!" Lance directed, already racing away from the window to prepare. Hunk shook his head in exasperation and began to dress, reminding himself to leave a note for his parents, just in case they woke up before he came back. Which, on second thought, Hunk really had no idea what he was doing. He didn't know when he was going to be back or anything really. The mystery should have scared him but it just excited him.

\------------------------

They had been walking for some time, as they had gotten farther and farther away from home ever since they departed. A few times Hunk thought he knew where they were going, but Lance directed them past the destination each and every time. When Hunk met up with Lance, they had both been wearing backpacks and warm hoodies to fight off the night's cold air. Lance seemed very happy with himself marching along. Hunk thought he'd be more anxious, leaving home without telling anyone, walking around in the middle of the night alone, no idea of a destination, but somehow all he was feeling was fondness as Lance got more and more excited the more time went on. Lance's good mood must have been rubbing off on him as a smile grew on his face. Hunk hadn't done anything particularly exciting in so long that the break in routine was a breath of fresh air.

"We're here!" Lance suddenly cheered, causing Hunk to snap out of his head. He looked around, only to see they were on a bridge, going across a slow moving canal. The canal was outlined by surprisingly pristine grassy hills. Hunk gulped at what Lance's plan could possibly be, as with the moon light and cheesy setting threw him off guard. Hunk gave Lance a cursory look, raising an eyebrow at him, and Lance replied by smiling innocently, somehow reminding him of Pidge.

"Okay! Now, we gotta strip!" Lance exclaimed, already dragging his shirt over his head. 

Hunk sputtered, not mentally prepared to see Lance almost naked, let alone himself. He never had the best relationship with his body and he knew his body had nothing to do with being unhealthy, it was just how it was. Most of the people on Samoa were big. But bigger bodies always held this stigma of ugly, unhealthy, unnatural, gross, the list goes on. Hunk had worked with his body image for a long time, and he was improving. He could just never quite grasp that body positivity that so many people had. That he wished he had.

Hunk didn't feel comfortable stripping in front of Lance, hell, he barely felt comfortable shirtless around his friends. Lance, however, had finished and was standing there, in nothing but his underwear. Hunk nearly combusted on the spot. Lance just smiled at Hunk in a reassuring way before stepping up onto the railing.

"Lance you aren't doing what I think you're doing right?!" Hunk exclaimed, not liking where this was going at all. Lance replied by turning to smile at Hunk with that godforsaken 1000 Watt smile before screaming,

"BRIDGE JUMPING!!" and with that, he launched himself into the canal. Hunk rushed to the railing, watching Lance laugh the whole way down, cannonballing into the water. Lance disappeared for a second under the dark waves, filling Hunk up with unease bubbling in his chest. Then Lance's head popped up out of the water, laughing loud enough to wake the neighbors surely. Lance shook the water out of his face before cheering up at Hunk, "It's a little cold but it feels great! Definitely will wake you up, geez," he just continued to laugh, oblivious to the emotional trauma he just put Hunk through.

"Lance! Are you insane?! Is this even safe? Are you okay?" Hunk yelled back down at Lance, who was beginning to swim to the edge so he could get out.

"What do you mean? Don't tell me you've never been bridge jumping before Hunk? It's fun! I promise!" Lance assured, making his way back onto the bridge, not really answering Hunks question. Once he was standing beside Hunk though, his smile faded. Hunk was sure he wasn't sporting a face of enthusiasm. He turned to face him as Lance stared down at his shoes. "I'm sorry, I guess I didn't think about your feelings on this. It's just something me and my siblings like to do and I guess I just wanted to share it with you," Lance looks up at Hunk, meeting his eyes, "If you're uncomfortable, we can go home, sorry," Lance apologized, already picking up his shirt off of the ground, about to put it on.

Hunk panicked, he didn't feel comfortable, that Lance got right, but he'd never seen Lance so melancholy before. This must have meant a lot to Lance, he just wanted to have a fun time. Hunk couldn't help but feel like he was ruining it. Lots of people went jumping, right?

"Wait Lance," Hunk grabbed his friend’s shoulder, halting his actions, "I...I think maybe...maybe I'd like to give this a try? I'm...scared...but that normally means I should do it right? Roller coasters are scary but there fun- and people always tell you to face your fears," Lance smiled at Hunk, appreciating that his friend was at least trying for his benefit.

Somehow, Hunk had an easier time taking off his shirt after seeing that Lance didn't make a big deal out of it. Lance smiled and laughed along with Hunk as the two stepped up onto the railing, Lance grabbed Hunks hand before starting to count.

"On three, okay? One...two...THREE!"

And they jumped.

\--------------

The two of them laid in the grass on the edge of the canal, both looking up at the stars dotting the night sky. After the first jump, Hunk had sucked in the adrenaline, nearly bouncing on his toes, which the two jumped and jumped and jumped, over and over again, laughing the whole time. They only ever took breaks to splash each other. Of course, eventually, they just got too cold to continue so, they got dressed again. Lance pulled out two blankets from his backpack and Hunk pulled out the snacks and the two laid down to stargaze. Lance was wrapped up in a pink Hello Kitty blanket where as Hunk got the honors of SpongeBob to keep him warm. 

Hunk had shoved a rice cracker into his mouth when Lance began, "Hey Hunk, tell me if this is out of line but.. can I ask about your family?" Lance didn't make eye contact, staring at the sky the whole time, but Hunk could see his eyebrows furrow. Hunk swallowed his cracker before speaking,

"Yeah, what do you want to know?" Hunk inquired. He never had any issues with his family past to be honest, while it wasn't all sunshine or rainbows, he wouldn't trade it for the world.

"Well, um, like how did your parents meet? How did you come into the picture? You know?" Lance asked, feeling uncomfortable about his insensitive approached. He wasn't sure if this was an issue or not for Hunk. He needn't have worried though; Hunk loved talking about his family.

"Well, as you know I was born on Samoa, an island in the South Pacific. Not long after I was born, my birth parents, Emere's sister and her husband, died when a hurricane hit our home. I was pulled from the wreckage and Tinā adopted me. We were originally going to live on the Island, even though Tinā wasn't very happy there. Then Abby showed up, she was visiting from America. She really likes to travel, it.. It feeds her creative spirit or something like that. However, my moms fell in love and Abby ended up staying for a couple of years. They ended up getting married in Samoa before moving to America when I was 5. On my 6th birthday, Abby adopted me officially and became my mom. So yeah...I think we were actually planning on vacationing back to the island soon," Hunk sighed.   
Reminiscing on his early days, back on the island, Hunk turned to see Lance staring at him in awe, surprising the samoan, "Well what about your family, tell me about them?" Hunk inquired, feeling like he had a right to ask now. He hadn't forgotten about the missing father.

"Ha, well my story isn't as flattering as yours, I'd say. My grandparents initially immigrated from Cuba to America. They brought along my Mom, my Dad, and baby Nicole. They started a family here, but eventually, my grandparent passed away to a disease. My Mom and Adrien -my Dad- were making their own family, and it was all good for a while. Not long after Sofia was conceived though, Adrien took all our money and vanished, leaving my mom with 6 kids and nothing to support us. She had to start working overtime, and Nicole and Camilla had to get jobs, but even then we were struggling. Our house was too small for all of us and the bills were too high. We ended up using homeschooling to try and save some money. I started doing dance competitions to help pay for some stuff with my money rewards. It's not a lot but every bit helps. Eventually, we saved up enough money for a bigger house, so we moved here," Lance finished wistfully, looking up at the stars, unable to make eye contact with his friend. Hunk looked at Lance with a new light, he always suspected there was more to his family life then he let on. But Lance was always so happy and cheerful, it was hard to notice when things were wrong. He wondered how much of Lance's attitude was just a facade.

Hunk pulled Lance into a crushing hug, though slightly wet and cold, it was a good hug. Lance wrapped his arms as best he could around Hunk, taking in the embrace. Hunk hugged on tight to Lance, not really wanting to let go.

He'd look after Lance, that was a promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, with this chapter we're halfway done the fic. And from here on things are going to start picking up into the drama and angst (not too much though, I promised fluff). I just wanted to leave a thanks to anyone who has stood with me through these chapters because they're slow, and I know they're slow, but I knew if I rushed these beginning chapters the whole fic would lose its emotional impact. So thank you for having so much faith in me, even though I've been working on this fic for a year and it's just been slow burn. I'm hoping to grill out a couple chapters over Christmas break though so you should have that to look forward too. Special Thanks to my new beta: TravelzBook!


	11. A Marathon (No Not That Kind of Marathon)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> filler till next chap ;)

“Brave face talk so lightly, hide the truth”  
\-----------------------------------------------------------

 

Hunks parents were absolutely livid with him when he got home that night. Neither were at all impressed with his actions. Hunk never really got in trouble, but somehow, he couldn’t find himself regretting following Lance that night. Hunk has always been a good kid, he did what he was told, and that was fine, but that also robbed Hunk of a part of the fun of being a teenager and making dumb decisions.

As it turn out, making dumb decisions was fun. 

Hunk was in his bed reading a pretty good series, the next day when he got a text.

Lance: Last night was fun (･ω<)☆

Hunk tried not to think about what context he wished that was said in, shaking his head, before he picked up his phone and typed out a reply quickly after.

Hunk: Yeah it really was. Do you do stuff like that all the time?

Lance: Well...not all the time...but enough. And I have yet to be caught!

Hunk: doubtful 

Lance: I find your lack of faith disturbing

Hunk: I refuse to believe you’ve never been caught doing something stupid

Lance:...did...did you not get my reference?

Hunk: what?

Lance: I find your lack of faith disturbing?….you know...Darth Vader?...It’s from Star Wars?

Hunk: I’ve never seen Star Wars

Lance: ExCuSe Me. You’ve n e v e r seen Star Wars?! This is a crime against humanity! Don’t worry Hunk, I’m on my way right now with my limited edition Star Wars DVD’s to save you from this dark life you’ve been living. ☆*。★ﾟ*♪ヾ(☆ゝз・)ノ

Hunk: Uh, sorry but, I’m grounded

Lance: Oh shit, really?....That’s not because of last night is it?

Hunk: uh kinda...yeah...but don’t worry about it- I had fun!

Lance:...I’m sorry. How long?

Hunk: A week 

Lance: Well.. next weekend, when you get off probation, I’ll be there to cheer you up with the beauty that is Star Wars! (＾＾)

Hunk: Sounds great, I’m looking forward to it 

Hunk couldn’t stop himself from smiling, which it seemed that Lance had that effect on him a lot. 

 

The samoan spent the whole week at home, despite school, counting down the days until Lance would be coming over for their Star Wars marathon. The movies weren’t what Hunk was excited to see though.

It was Wednesday when Hunk finally told Pidge about his situation at the lunch table.

“Ha ha, you’re joking right? Hunk, the goody-two-shoes Hunk, grounded? Pfft- No way. Good try though,” Pidge insisted, trying to speak through the laughs bubbling up from her lungs. Hunk let out a big sigh and shook his head,

“I’m serious Pidge, I really am grounded.”

“Oh my god, seriously? That’s amazing. Lance must be a bad influence on you!” The short girl burst out laughing once again, amused at the thought of Lance corrupting her rule-following friend.

“God I hope not,” Hunk replied, not enjoying the idea of being ‘corrupted’. Pidge continued her crackling at Hunks dispense.

Keith shoved another spoonful of the school soup in his mouth right after saying, “Congratulations” which Hunk didn’t understand, but he did catch Shiro sending his brother a glare at that comment.

Allura looked at him with concern, “Just don’t let him talk you into anything you don’t want to do, okay?” Hunk nodded and offered an “of course”. Allura always was such a mom.

 

After the week had passed, it was finally time for Lance to come over. It was an early Saturday morning, Hunk opening the door to a smiling Lance, who cheekily displayed his collection of DVD’s. 

“Who’s ready to have the best Star Wars marathon in history!?” Lance declared devilishly, brows wiggling causing Hunk giggled at his theatrics and invited him in. 

They knew they were going to have to start it early if they had any hope if finishing at some point, as it was a lot of movies to go through. Luckily for Hunk, he was an early bird. As for Lance, he was a night owl, so he lazily slid the first disk into the player while he and Hunk got comfy on the couch. Once halfway through into the second movie was when Hunk remembered something important. Last week, the night they snuck out, he never got the chance to tell Lance about his sexuality. This could be his chance! But how was he supposed to bring this up casually?

“Hey, Lance? Um, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Oh no, oh no that was so bad, what was Hunk thinking- they’d been happily watching the movie but now he just had to go and make it awkward..

“What’s up?” Lance replied, glancing away from the TV to look at his friend. 

“Ah, sorry, I just...wanted you to know...that um, I’m queer? Sorry that was weird, you don’t need to acknowledge that. Just go back to watching the movie.” Hunk rambled, suddenly regretting every life decision he ever made, looking down at his hands in embarrassment. 

“Hey no, don’t say that Hunk,” Lance reached for the remote and paused the movie, shifting so he could face his friend properly, “I’ll never ignore you Hunk, that’s not what good friends do. I think its pretty cool that you’re queer, tell me about it?” Lance said softly, gentling bringing Hunk out of the self deprecating direction his thoughts were heading in.

“I just don’t like to put a label on myself I guess?” Lance nodded, listening intently. Hunk was a little unnerved by his undivided attention, but also a little touched that his hyperactive friend took this so seriously, “I know I’m not straight though, so I just identify as queer.”

“That’s cool, I can respect that. Do you wanna tell me more? Or do you wanna continue the movie?” Lance asked, offering Hunk an out if he wanted it, just he took gratefully. 

“Can we just watch the movie some more?” Hunk requested awkwardly. Lance just nodded and grabbed the remote to press play,

“Of course.” 

 

The boys kept watching, only stopping occasionally for food and bathroom breaks. It wasn’t even until supper when they finally left the couch. 

“You boys seem like you’re having fun,” Emere commented as they all sat down at the table, setting down her glass of water. Hunk passed the salt to Lance before replying, “Yeah, Star Wars is really good!” Abby laughed gleefully at his response, glad her son was enjoying his time. Her and Lance seemed to have build a bit of a relationship already, which mostly consisted of teasing each other, throwing jokes and jabs at each other without abandon. 

With Emere, he was more polite, most well spoken. Somehow perfectly fitting in with both of Hunks moms, despite them each having very different personalities. Hunk always thought that the part of Lance that could adjust himself to the person he was talking to was something to admire. 

The two boys returned to the couch with full bellies and even more movies to work their way through.

 

At some point, Lance had half heartedly complained about being cold and scooted his way over so he was pressed up against Hunk’s warm and cuddly side. Hunk response was to immediately turn red, I mean, who wouldn’t? He had a very attractive boy practically laying on top of him, clinging like a koala! Hunk tensed up, and his heart started to race, and god, Lance was definitely going to notice and that was going to be embarrassing. But Lance never said anything. It took quite a few minutes but Hunk did eventually relax, focussing on the Star War movie once more.

About another movie later, the two boys were wrapped around each other, dozing off a few times. Around the end of the movie was when Hunk looked down to the head in his lap to check on his state, finding that Lance’s eyes were closed and his mouth slightly open, soft snores leaving him. Hunk listened, letting the movie fade away, and it became clear that the brunette had fallen asleep. He’d fallen asleep on Hunk. 

Hunk glanced at the clock on the oven to see it was far too late. He briefly considered the idea of waking Lance up, his mom was probably expecting him home that night, and then Lance let out a snore and Hunk immediately threw that idea out. Then he wondered if he should carry him upstairs to bed, but...Hunk was so tired. 

 

Abby woke up first, she always did. When she went downstairs and saw the situation on her couch, she almost choked. She held back a laugh behind her hand, not wanting to wake up the two teens that were out cold on her couch, arms wrapped around each other. She darted upstairs to grab her camera. 

 

When the youngest member of the Garrett family woke up, he was confused. This wasn’t his bed? He sat up and looked around, only to spot Lance sitting at the table with his moms, laughing about something. Oh yeah, Lance had came over. When he noticed that Hunk was awake, he waved and greeted,

“Good morning sleeping beauty.”

“Morning… did we ever finish Star Wars?” Hunk asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He could already tell his back was going to be sore from sleeping on the couch. He stood up and walked sluggishly over to the table, seeing breakfast spread out. 

“Nah, I think we fell asleep sometime during “The Return of the Jedi”, guess that just means we’re gonna have to continue this another time,” Lance smiled across the table at Hunk, who was busy trying to figure out why Abby was avoiding eye contact and clearly trying to hold back a laugh. 

“Another marathon it is. Hey! We should do another music trade,” Lance gasped at the reminder, they hadn’t traded songs in a while. 

“How about meme songs? Mine’s easily “For the Damaged Coda” the song is actually really nice, meme or not.” Hunk thought about his for a while. He wasn’t the best at keeping up with memes but he thought he could handle this, 

“I choose “All Star”, it’s catchy and it somehow manages to sound like childhood,” The two laughed about that for a good moment until they were interrupted by Lances phone ringing. 

The Cuban looked down at the caller before answering in spanish. Hunk could hear muffled yelling from the other side of the phone before Lance responded in a stern tone, brows furrowing up. There was some back and forth before Lance hung up and stood up from the chair.

“Is everything okay?” Hunk asked, concerned about the worn face his friend was making. Lance let out a big sigh before slinging his backpack over his shoulder and heading to the porch.

“Yeah, Sofia just managed to bang her head against a table. She’s fine, but you know how head injuries bleed and apparently her and Lucas are freaking out. I gotta head over there and calm everyone down, sorry-” Lance replied, slipping on his shoes and walking out the door with a wave to Hunk, rushing off to his house without another word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeet, I know this is really late and short. My bad. I just about cut this chapter but I figured people would rather me update a small meaningless chapter sooner rather than a long important chapter later. Enjoy cause somethings happening next chapter :))))

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to add that if anybody was interested in beta reading for me please let me know. I'd like one or two to give thoughts on chapters and assure me that I didn't overlook any mistakes. Thank you!


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